The Crippled Crane
by catlovingmermaid
Summary: When Kim is in a severe accident a mysterious prophecy comes to light, about Kim and Tommy. The villains are determined to prevent the prophecy from coming true. Can their friends keep Kim safe so that the Prophecy can be fulfilled? rated t to be safe. First in the Power Couple series.
1. Chapter 1: Dreams in Paris

**A/N: Ever since my little brother told me about the letter and convinced me to watch the episode with him I always wondered what the true story behind the letter was. Because if you ask me it screams "it's a lie!"**

 **Disclaimer: if I own power rangers Tommy and Kim never ever would have broken up.**

 **Hints: Late night Mission.**

…

Chapter one: Dreams in Paris

Tommy was glad that Rocky suggested that they hit the slopes one last time together. He hadn't been certain that he could handle being alone this weekend. Not only was it Valentine's Day but it was also Kim's eighteenth birthday. He shook his head, Kim had sent him a Dear John letter just over a week ago, and he was still closer to flying without his falcon zord then he was too accepting the breakup.

But that wasn't the only thing bugging Tommy. For the past two months, he had been having a strange dream that always left him drenched in sweat. After the first couple of times, he had finally gone to Zordon and asked him what he had thought about it. Zordon had said that it was some sort of warning of something that was about to happen. Now the dream was coming more frequently, several times a night. Tommy was certain that meant that whatever that dream was trying to warn him about were about to happen soon.

"Hey, bro, you ok?" Rocky asked, plopping down next to him on the bed, a look of concern on his face. Tommy seemed kind of distracted, and for a power ranger to be distracted was never a good thing.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tommy said reassuringly, shaking his head to clear it, "I just can't shake the feeling that something is horribly wrong."

"Don't worry; Zordon will contact us if he needs us." Rocky stated, slugging his friend in the arm before standing up, "So are you going to stay in the room and mope the whole time, or are you going to hit the slopes?"

Tommy slowly shook his head, wishing he could dismiss the feeling as easily as the blue ranger had, as he followed him out the door.

….

 _Aisha was having the dream again, she knew it the moment her eyes closed. She was in the jungle, watching a crane fly gracefully above her head. Aisha smiled as the Crane dove down, skimmed across the water, and then rose back up in the air._

 _Suddenly the beautiful bird let out a scream of pain and plummeted to the earth. Aisha rushed to its side only to discover that she couldn't get through the undergrowth. She struggled through it until she could finally see the injured bird, and realized that it was pink._

Aisha woke up, covered in sweat, Kim was hurt, that was the only reason she could think of for the recurring dream that had plagued her for the past couple of weeks, but why was Kim alone; surely Tommy would not leave his Crane injured all alone, yet there had been no sign of a falcon. She needed to get back to her own time and place. Her sister needed her; she just hoped Zordon was awake.

…

 _Everything was shrouded in the fog around Tommy, he couldn't see a thing but he could hear laughter. He headed towards the laughter only to see two big glowing yellow eyes moving towards him. He heard a woman's scream, followed by a little child's scream. Then there was a loud screeching noise and a loud thud, and a scream of pure terror._

Tommy bolted upright and glanced around the room, Rocky, Adam, and Billy were all still fast asleep. He glanced at the alarm clock next to him, it was 12:53 in the morning and he was certain that he was not going to go back to sleep anytime soon.

…Paris France…

Mrs. Dumas closed the door to her apartment behind her. She had tried everything except physical force to drag her daughter out of bed. Her daughter had moved in about a week ago, and nothing she said could get her to believe her life was not over.

She hoped that if she got her daughter's former team leader and teammates to come talk to her, as long as they didn't treat her the way her former gymnastic team treated her after the accident, that might help with the depression. She shook her head, they wouldn't dare; they had been her friends since preschool. And if they weren't there, then she'll call in Tommy. Surely if her boyfriend showed up it would cheer her up.

She called a cab, and headed out to the hotel that was hosting the Teen Peace Summit, already figuring out what to say.

She entered the lobby, and soon found an adult that was wearing a Peace Summit t-shirt, "Excuse me, Ms. Turner, but is Jason Lee Scott here?"

The woman scrutinized her with knowing eyes, "Who shall I say is calling?" she asked. It was an important question when people found out that Jason and his friends were from Angel Grove people tend to pester them about it, wanting to know about the power rangers. As Chaperone she was responsible for her students' safety.

"I'm his Aunt Caroline."

Ms. Turner nodded, heading upstairs to where Jason was hanging out with his girlfriend and best friend. She knocked on the door which was cracked open, "Excuse me, Jason, do you have an Aunt Caroline?"

"Sort of, she was my next door neighbor; she was like a second mother to me, why?"

"Do you know if she was planning to be here in Paris this weekend?"

"She moved here about eighteen months ago," Jason explained, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach.

"Why are you asking these questions, Ms. Turner?" Trini asked, glancing from her boyfriend to the chaperone standing in the doorway.

"She's in the lobby, asking for you."

Zack glanced at his two best friends, raising his eyebrow, why was she looking for Jason, "Do you think something happened to Kim? That's the only thing I could think of for her to come here."

Ms. Turner was shoved out of the way as the three friends raced past her down the stairs. She didn't know Kim, but she knew how much the girl meant to the three friends, and she hoped nothing too bad had happened to the girl.

…

All was quiet in the Command Chamber, both Alpha and Zordon were in recharge when an alarm woke them up.

"Ay, Yi Yi!" Alpha shouted, "Someone's calling into the viewing globe." Alpha quickly accepted the phone call, and let out a sigh of confusion when it revealed it to be Aisha.

"What happened to Kim?" she demanded after hearing Alpha greet her.

"Aisha, I am afraid that I have no idea what you are talking about," Zordon said, for the very first time allowing confusion to enter his voice.

"I've been having dreams for the past couple of weeks, Kim's crane is flying, then it falls, and I can't get to it to help it."

"I see; the last I had heard from Kimberly was a week ago when she sent a letter telling Tommy she had meant someone else."

"Kim sent that in a letter, that doesn't sound like her at all." Aisha pointed out, "Please let me come home; she needs me."

"Very well Aisha, Alpha 5 will work on opening a time portal for you," Zordon replied, deeply concerned, what could have happened to his crane to cause his bear so much distress.

…

Paris France

Jason quickly hugged his aunt as she greeted him and his friends. Jason frowned, there was something wrong he could feel it, he could see it in her eyes.

"What's wrong Mrs. H.?" Zack asked, slowing his hops at the sight of her face.

"I'm worried about Kim."

"So do you want us to call her?" Trini asked, confused there really wasn't much they could do while they were in Paris and she was in Florida.

"I was hoping you could go visit her, cheer her up. Maybe take her shopping." Caroline suggested.

"You want us to go to Florida to check on your daughter?" Jason asked.

"No, she's here, in Paris, didn't she tell you about the accident?"

"What accident?" the three friends asked together.

…

"I don't like this," Jason muttered as he crossed the street, "Why would Kim be in Paris when she's supposed to be in Florida?"

"I don't like this either, why would Kim not tell us that she was in Paris, she's known for over a month that we were going to be here this week, we could have made plans to meet up and hang." Zack pointed out.

"I think Zack that the better question would be why she left Florida in the first place; the Olympics are in a few months." Trini interrupted, "I mean; going to the Olympics has been a dream of Kim's since she was a little girl. She would never give that up unless she was forced too."

"Tri's right," Jason agreed, "Aunt Caroline mentioned something about an accident, but why didn't she tell us about it? Unless there's something more about the accident then she's letting on."

Zack stopped and turned around to face his friends, "You don't think that her _accident_ has something to do with us being…" Zack paused as he looked around to make sure nobody could hear him, "power rangers?" he finished in a soft hiss.

Jason stopped, "I haven't even thought about that. If it is, we're going to need Tommy." He raised his wrist to his mouth, ignoring Trini's warning on how late it was in California, his little sister could be in big trouble and he might need Tommy's help.

…

Aisha nodded her thanks as she landed in the command chamber. "Thanks, Zordon, now you don't happen to know where Kim is, do you?"

"Alpha 5 is searching for her location as we speak," Zordon announced, indicating the busy android that was busily at work at the computers.

Alpha 5 nodded absentmindedly, not even stopping long enough to say hi to his old friend. Just then the alarm went off, alerting them to a new call coming in.

"It's Jason," Alpha announced, pulling him up on the viewing globe.

"Yes, Red Ranger what is it?" Zordon asked, concerned, the former Rangers never called the base, especially so late at night, to have two calls within five minutes of each other was truly troubling.

"Can you patch me through to Tommy; I believe that Kim might be in trouble," Jason stated.

If Zordon had a chest for his heart to pound in, it would have started pounding very hard with that one statement. Two former rangers called the base about the same person being in trouble. Add in the fact that it was Kimberly Hart who was quite literarily was the heart of the team. She was the one that the others went to when they were feeling down. The others viewed her as a little sister; he viewed her as his daughter. He hoped that the situation wasn't as bad as it sounded, but he felt that the opposite was true instead.

…

Tommy jumped when his communicator went off as he watches the digital clock turn to 1:00 in the morning, "Tommy here." He moaned into it, not looking forward to waking his teammates if it turned out to be King Mondo up to his tricks earlier than usual.

"Hi bro," Jason's voice filtered through his wristband.

"Jason, it's one in the morning, why are you calling me?" Tommy kind of growled, he didn't mind too much, he had been awake anyway. It was more of the fact that it was one in the morning than anything else.

"See I told you it was too early to call him." Trini retorted.

"But we had to call him," Zack's voice responded.

Tommy ran his hand through his hair, "Would one of you tell me why you called me at one in the morning."

"Sure thing," Zack said, even over the communicator, Tommy could hear his smirk as he added, "Kim's here in Paris."

Any irritation or tiredness Tommy might have been feeling disappeared by that simple statement, "Why is Kim in France?"

"We don't know, her mom mentioned something about an accident. Have you heard anything about that?" Trini asked.

"No," Tommy announced.

Jason cleared his throat, "We're afraid that the Power Rangers are involved in the accident. That's the only reason we can think for her not to tell us about it."

"So you want me to be there in case you need a ranger?"

"Well, yes and no." Trini replied, "We figured that Kim might like to see her boyfriend seeing as it is Valentine's Day _and_ her birthday."

Tommy shook his head, he had forgotten to tell his friends about the breakup, "um, guys, I hate to disappoint you but she dumped me last week in a letter." Tommy suddenly thought of something, "What if the accident happened before the letter, if it was, then the letter was a lie."

"There's one way to find out." Jason pointed out.

"I'll meet you there, just let me talk to Zordon," Tommy replied getting out of bed and pulling a shirt on.

 **A/N: There you go my version of the letter. What do you think happened to Kim? Here's a hint the two dreams are related.**


	2. Chapter 2: the Letter's Truth

**A/N: Wow, I never thought this story would get so many favorites so quickly.**

Chapter two: The Letter's Truth

Tommy found it quite easy convincing Zordon into allowing him to teleport to Paris, probably because he was just as worried about this latest development as Tommy and Aisha. Therefore ten minutes after Tommy received his phone call from Jason; he, along with Jason, Zack, Trini, and Aisha was letting themselves into the Dumas apartment.

Trini froze as she glanced down the hallway, remembering which door Caroline told them was Kim's room, "Why don't you boys stay out here while Aisha and I check in on Kim."

"My girlfriend is in there," Tommy stated, pointing towards the door, "and you want me to stay out here?!" he asked, pointing to the floor in front of him, shooting Trini a dirty look.

"Trini's right," Aisha spoke up, "you should wait out here."

"I'm her brother!" Jason snapped.

Zack shook his head, "I want to see her too, guys, but the girls are right they should go in first, just to make sure she's awake and everything."

Jason and Tommy had to agree with that, they both knew how embarrassed she could get if the boys saw her at anything but her best.

Aisha and Trini went to the door and knocked, a muffled, "I'm fine Mom, leave me alone," was the only response from the other side of the door.

Aisha opened the door anyway, "That's not what Baka told Nita." She stated as she entered the room, ignoring Trini's confused look.

Kim was lying flat on her back, staring at the ceiling, her hair matted, as though she hadn't done anything with it for a while. At the sound of Aisha's voice, she turned her head towards the door, "Aisha, what are you doing here?"

"What we all are doing here," Trini replied, entering the room as well, "trying to figure out why you are here in Paris."

Kim slowly propped herself up on her hands then scooted herself so she was leaning against her headboard, her movement slow and jerky, as though the task was extremely painful and hard to do. "You said ' _we'_ , who all is here?" her voice sounded exhausted and devoid of any emotions, except pain.

"Jason, Zack," Trini paused to make sure she was looking into Kimberly's eyes as she added, "Tommy."

Kim's brown eyes which used to sparkle with life and always seemed so full of laughter, as though they could see something nobody else could, now was dull and lifeless, full of pain and at the mention of Tommy's name, fear, and mistrust.

"Why is Tommy here, he's needed in Angel Grove, what if the Machine Empire attacks while he's here? What would Zordon say?"

Aisha shook her head, "Zordon gave him permission to come; besides it's only one in the morning in Angel Grove."

"So, Zordon ordered him to come?" Kim asked disappointment in her voice.

Aisha let out a snort, "I think it was more of a Tommy ordered Zordon to teleport him here. I should know I was there. He was really worried about you."

"Tommy was worried about me?" Kim asked in wonder, after breaking his heart, he still worries about her. That would probably change though, once he learned the truth. Her father, coach, and teammates turned their backs on her, why shouldn't her old power ranger team do the same.

Trini and Aisha smiled as they saw the hope in Kim's eyes, only for it to turn into a frown as it quickly disappeared.

"Yep!" Aisha chirped; smiling broadly, hoping to get one in return, she had no such luck.

"They're waiting for us in the living room," Trini replied, "Why don't you get out of bed and find out for yourself that Tommy still cares."

Kim shook her head, her eyes glancing into the corner behind her two best friends who were standing at the foot of her bed, "Coach Schmidt cared until he found out that I wouldn't be able to make it to the Olympics, and then he left me high and dry."

"Kim," her two friends sighed, almost in perfect unison.

Trini frowned, she didn't care how famous that coach was, if she ever crossed paths with him blows would be exchanged, Kim might be tough and might know how to fight, but she was very emotional and had separation anxiety. "Get out of bed, and we'll go do something for your birthday."

Again Kim glanced over her friends' shoulders into the corner. "It's very difficult for me to get out of bed at the moment."

"We're not buying the 'I can't get out of bed' nonsense." Aisha declared.

Kim once again glanced over her friends' shoulders into the same corner, "It's not that I can't get out of bed it's just that it's very hard for me to move around."

"Well if you want," Trini said, slyly, "We can have the boys come in here."

"I don't care if you want to," came Kim's half-hearted response.

No sooner had the door opened did Zack danced his way in, knowing that his antics had always brought a smile to Kim's face growing up. Tommy sat down on her bed and moved her onto his lap, being extra careful not to jar her too much. Jason plopped down next to them, wrapping an arm around Kim as he did. Zack still determined to make Kim smile stated, "It looks like the two of you are playing tug-a-war with Kim."

Kim rolled her eyes, reached over Jason and grabbed her pillow which she immediately threw at Zack. Zack ducked, but Kim had been faster, hitting him square in the face. "Well, I guess I'm not completely useless."

"Who told you that you were useless Beautiful?" Tommy demanded, giving her a quick squeeze, as he used his nickname for her.

"Yeah, Sis, who do you need me to beat up," Jason said, pounding his fist into his hand while giving his sister a serious look. Everyone in the room knew that at that moment he was being completely serious.

Kim glanced at him, "My dad, my coach, and about half of Miami."

"Your dad!" Trini exclaimed.

Aisha frowned, "I knew that you were hurt, but what happened?"

Kim frowned, she knew her friends too well, and they wouldn't give up, no matter what she did. So she let out a sigh and began to talk.

"I was hit by a car. It was foggy out; I was out with some other gymnasts, doing some shopping before the big New Years Eve party. We were having a good time, talking and laughing. Then suddenly we heard a scream, through the fog we could make out a little toddler that had wandered out into the middle of the road, and a car was coming, super fast, considering how dense the fog was. His mother was trying to get him to come to her." Kim paused to take a breath. "There wasn't time to think, so I jumped into the road, scooped the child up, and tossed him into his mother's arms. By then the car was on me."

The room filled with a unified gasp and then fell silent again as the five friends tried to process what had just happened.

Kim continued, "The next part is very strange. I remember as the car hit me I wished that I could morph. I knew that if I didn't morph I would be killed. As I was thrown into the air I felt the surge of power you get every time you morph. For a second I even thought that I was looking through the tinted visor of my helmet. Then I hit the pavement and blacked out. Woke up a week later in the hospital."

"You thought you morphed?" Zack gasped in awe, no one has been able to morph after turning their powers over to someone else before.

Kim shook her head, "I was in pain, and my mind played tricks on me, that's all."

"Why didn't you tell us about the accident before?" Trini asked.

"When I first woke up, Coach Schmidt was with me telling me that I was going to be ok and that I needed to work extra hard if I wanted to make the Olympics. Then the doctor came in and told me that my injuries would prevent me from ever doing gymnastics again, he just got up and left. Several of my teammates came by; they told me that I ruined their chance of our team taking gold. They blamed me for their failure. They abandoned me when I needed friends the most."

"You were afraid that we would turn on you too, weren't you?" Trini asked, being able to read between the lines to see what Kim wasn't telling them.

"Why though?" Jason asked.

"You know you can trust us," Aisha added.

"We are not fair weather friends," Tommy insisted, "look at all the stuff we've gone through with my green ranger powers."

"I know that it's just that…" Kim trailed off.

"What is it, Kim?" Zack prompted.

"My dad found out, and he pretty much laughed at me over the phone. He told me in no uncertain terms that he would not spend the rest of his life caring for an invalid daughter, and that he knew of a rest home that would take me in.

"My dad didn't want me anymore." By now Kim was crying, "He was there to chase monsters from underneath the bed. He was there when I scraped my knee. He was my father and he brushed me to the side. After that Mom came and offered a place here."

Tommy and Jason both gave Kim a comforting squeeze. "What about the letter, it was after the accident wasn't it?" Tommy just had to ask.

Kim let out a half-hearted laugh, "Yeah, I was afraid you would abandon me, or abandon the team to be with me like you did. I didn't want to distract you from your mission. So I wrote you off."

"Not knowing what had happened was distracting me more than knowing that you were hurt would have. I was having dreams, dreams that something bad was going to happen." Tommy quickly told the others about the dream he had, "now I know that the glowing eyes where headlights and the squealing sound was them slamming on the brakes."

"You dreamt of the accident." Trini gasped.

"That's amazing, I mean, I saw Baka fell from the sky, but anything could have happened, you saw the accident," Aisha said in wonder.

"That's not all," Tommy added, "I saw it before it happened. It bugged me so bad I told Zordon about it, he told me it was a warning of some sort."

Trini cleared her throat, "Who is Baka? And why do you keep mentioning her?" she asked Aisha.

"Baka is my spirit animal the crane," Kim whispered.

"Why did Baka go to Nita and not to Sahen?" Tommy asked, then seeing the confused looks on the three original rangers that didn't serve as ninjetti added, "Sahen is my falcon and Nita is Aisha's bear."

"I don't care about Spirit Animals and who they talked to and who they don't." Zack announced, "I want to get done here so that I can find a date for tonight."

"Zack!" the others chorused as he dodged yet another pillow, this one thrown by Jason.

Jason smiled an idea forming in his mind, "Trini and I are planning on dinner and going to the dance the peace conference is hosting together, maybe Tommy and Kim can come, make it a double date."

"Huh," Trini said, "First we have to get Kim out of bed." She stopped to wriggle her fingers, "Everyone, grab a side."

Zack stepped back as Kim's best friends tickled her as her older brother and boyfriend pinned her down. At least Jason was struggling to keep Kim's upper body pinned down; Tommy was pinning down her legs, which weren't even moving.

Zack frowned, Kim's kicks were powerful, the most powerful there could be; many a putty had been destroyed by them. It has always taken two people to pin her legs down in a tickle fight like this one. So why wasn't she kicking?

 _Unless she couldn't_ , the thought caught Zack by surprise causing him to stumble backward, until he bumped into something. Zack turned around, the noise of the tickle fight fading into the background, behind him, tipped over as if it had been pushed, was a wheelchair.

Zack glanced at it and at Kim's bed, the path was completely clear of debris. Zack frowned, putting the puzzle together. "Guys, stop, I know how to get her out of bed."

Everyone turned to look at Zack, leaving Kim gasping for air. "Thanks, Zack, but nothing you say can get me out of bed," Kim stated once she had caught her breath.

"I can get you out of bed because I know your little secret," Zack replied, flashing a triumphant smile as he righted the wheelchair.

Kim looked downright scared as she pleaded, "Zack please don't."

…

 **A/N: Cliffie haha any guesses at what Kim's secret is. Reviews make me smile.**


	3. Chapter 3: Secrets Revealed

**A/N: thanks to all my reviewers.**

…

 _Previously on 'The Crippled Crane,'_

 _Zack frowned, putting the puzzle together, "Guys, stop, I know how to get her out of bed."_

 _Everyone turned to look at Zack, leaving Kim gasping for air. "Thanks, Zack, but nothing you say can get me out of bed," Kim stated once she had caught her breath._

" _I can get you out of bed because I know your little secret," Zack replied, flashing a triumphant smile as he righted the wheelchair._

 _Kim looked downright scared as she pleaded, "Zack please don't."_

…

Chapter three: Secrets Revealed.

Everyone glanced from Zack to Kim, wondering if Zack would tell them what Kim was trying so hard to hide.

"Think about it, she didn't kick at all during your little tickle fight, and it usually took four of us to pin her down. Plus here's a wheelchair, toppled over in the corner. She heard us arguing in the hall and she pushed the wheelchair into the corner so that we wouldn't notice it."

"Zack stop!" Kim ordered, she didn't want to have to admit it out loud, but she also didn't want to hear another person tell people she cared about that she was pretty much useless, "If they're going to find out anyway, it might as well be from me."

Kim sighed when all her friends turned to look at her, "During the accident, my spinal cord was badly damaged. I'm paralyzed from the waist down." She announced as quickly as she could, looking downwards so she wouldn't see the looks of disgust on her friends' faces.

Someone, Kim couldn't tell if it was Aisha or Trini, sighed, "Oh, Kimmy."

"Kim, why would you keep that from us?" she recognized that voice to be Jason's.

"I was afraid that you would, I don't know, not want me around anymore," Kim replied looking down at her lap.

Tommy huffed, as he scooped his girlfriend up and deposited her into her wheelchair, "Kim if I do that I would be the worst of hypocrites, what with everything we went through." With that, he made sure she was settled into her wheelchair, "There," he announced, "Already to go."

"I'm going to have to disagree with you, Tommy." A new voice filtered through the open door, "I don't want my daughter going out in her night clothes."

Jason and the others exchanged looks of pure terror, how were they going to explain Aisha and Tommy's presence to Kim's mom who was standing in the doorway.

"Umm…" Zack said, "They're a figure of your imagination."

Mrs. Dumas shook her head, "I hope Tommy didn't leave the Power Ranger Team high and dry to come visit."

"What!" The former rangers gulped, looking at her with a look of fear and confusion.

"You guys aren't as good at lying as you think," Mrs. Dumas stated almost smugly.

"How many people know our identities?" Tommy asked.

"All of your parents and Ernie." Came the reply.

Jason actually started to laugh, "Ernie knowing actually explains a lot."

…

An hour and a half later found the six friends exploring the streets of Paris. "Hey look," Trini called out, "There's a café, let's stop for lunch."

Zack smiled, "Great, I'm starving." He announced as the teens entered the busy café. Zack looked around at the bustling scene, "it's a good thing Kim brought her own chair; this place is packed."

"Yeah, let's make fun of the girl in the wheelchair, why don't you," Kim growled. Jason looked at her with a concerned look, trying to judge if she was joking or not. She wasn't.

"Zack," Jason urged, "Let's not tease Kim about her wheelchair, please. It's still a touchy subject."

"No," Kim insisted, "its okay, he was just trying to make me smile."

"Well, well, well, what do we have here." The voice sent shivers down the backs of the former Rangers and caused Tommy to pull out his Zeonizer, "a group of former rangers."

Tommy frowned; he was behind Jason at the moment and therefore probably hadn't been brought to Scorpina's attention yet. This, he figured, could be a good thing if she wanted to cause trouble.

"What do you want?" Jason demanded.

"I want to finish what I started in Florida." The monster announced.

"'Started in Florida'," Trini repeated, "Are you saying that you're responsible for Kim's accident?"

Scorpina laughed, "Of course I was, I figured if I harmed Tommy's precious girlfriend, the power rangers would be so horribly distracted that they wouldn't see the attack coming."

Kim frowned, and then, gesturing to her wheelchair, "Scorpina, you already harmed me."

"I know I did," Scorpina hissed, "I had to change my plans when you ended up morphing right at impact. It occurred to me that you shouldn't be able to do that. Not only had you handed your powers over to that traitor Katherine but that power had since been destroyed. Which leaves us to wonder, how did you do it?"

"I thought I imagined that." Kim gasped staring up in awe at the evil creature that was pacing back and forth in front of them. She hadn't yet attacked, so the Rangers didn't either, ' _Never escalate a fight,'_ was still burned into their brains, even if it had been several months, if not years since they had all been rangers.

"No, it was real. It took me some time but I figured it out, _'The Prophecy of the Power Couple'_ was the only explanation. I can't have that prophecy come true, and the only way to stop it is to kill you."

Tommy who was in the back of the group, and hadn't been noticed yet by Scorpina quickly morphed and jumped over his friends' heads. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I won't let you harm my friends!"

Scorpina looked like she was hit across the head; it was obvious that she did not want to fight an actual Power Ranger. She quickly backed away, "You can't protect her all the time and it's not like she can fight back." With that, she was gone and Tommy demorphed.

"That was freaky cool." Zack exclaimed, "You caught some serious air there. You totally jumped over six feet in the air."

Kim looked up at her friends, "She's right though, you can't protect me all the time."

Jason frowned, Kim had a good point, "What is this prophecy she mentioned."

The others shrugged, "Don't ask me," Trini stated, "She's probably just making it up; surly Zordon would have told us if Kim was part of a prophecy."

"It doesn't matter if the prophecy is real or not." Aisha argued, "The threat is real. I think we should talk to Zordon about this new development. He'll know how to keep Kim safe."

…

Zordon had been keeping an eye on what was occurring in Paris, so he was not surprised when Tommy and the former rangers showed up. "Rangers, I am aware of Scorpina's threat." He informed them.

Kim wheeled herself forward, "She didn't want to attack me with Tommy and the others with me, but they'll have to leave soon, Jason and the others are only there for the weekend."

"That is why, for your safety, I feel that it would be best if you move back to Angel Grove, Scorpina will not dare attack you while you are under my protection."

"What is this Prophecy she mentioned?" Jason demanded.

"Yes the ' _Prophecy of the Power Couple.'"_ Zordon mentioned, "There is a prophecy as old as the morphing grid. It was foretold that there would be two rangers, a male, and female, that would be more powerful than any before or after. Their powers are derived from the true and pure love that they feel for each other. A power so powerful that it can't be destroyed. They shall have the power of creation."

"That's great," Zack piped up, "but what does that have to do with Kim?"

"I have suspected for some time that Kimberly might be one of the rangers referred to in the prophecy."

"If there was a prophecy about me, why didn't you tell me?" Kim demanded.

"I was hoping that by keeping you ignorant about the prophecy Lord Zedd, Rita and their minions would be unaware of it also. I am afraid that that is no longer the case."

Everyone nodded, that made sense, however, Tommy had just thought of something, "The prophecy mentions that there are two rangers. If Kim's one of them, doesn't that make me the other one?"

"Yes, Red Ranger, you are the other ranger mentioned in the prophecy. Now that the two of you are aware of the prophecy I can train the two of you to use the power that resides inside of you."

"That's nice Zordon," Aisha stated, "but let's focus on moving Kim back to Angel Grove, she can't stay at my house, it's not handicapped accessible."

"My house is." Jason offered, "My grandmother had to be moved to a nursing home, and she's in a wheelchair. Mom had our front porch modified as well as the main floor bathroom. I'll talk to her, I'm sure she will agree."

Trini shook her head, "Not right now you won't; it's only four in the morning."

Tommy stifled a yawn, "No wonder I'm so tired."

"I believe that the best thing for you to do, Tommy, is to go back to the resort and get some rest while the others make arrangements to move back here."

Aisha suddenly spoke up, "Zordon, according to Kim's mom our parents and Ernie knows our secret, what should we do about it?"

"There is nothing you can do about it. I know that you tried to keep the secret to the best of your ability. However, I do not think it wise that the fact that Tommy and Kim are part of a prophecy is a good idea. The fewer people who hear about it, the less likely our enemies will find out."

"So what are we going to tell them," Trini asked.

"Yeah," Jason agreed, "They're going to wonder why we all decided to come home all of a sudden."

"Tell them that we were attacked by a monster and were told to return to Angel Grove for protection," Kim suggested.

"What about everyone else? We can't tell them that." Zack pointed out.

Everyone stopped to think for a minute, except for Tommy, who was discovering that it was getting very difficult to keep his eyes open.

"I got it," Trini explained, "it will be very obvious that Jason and Kim planned to come home together, and everyone will assume that Zack and I decided to come home as well."

Kim nodded, "My doctor actually suggested that a warmer climate would help with my depression some. I could have brought it up with Jason, who arranged for me to come live with him and his family."

Zack added, "Trini and I would have found out that Jason was quitting the peace summit, and after finding out why, decided to come along too, seeing as we missed our families as well."

Aisha frowned, "I told my parents that I was accepted into a study abroad program. I'll just tell everyone that I got homesick and decided to come home early. I will supposedly meet you at some kind of airport on the way home and that's how I came home."

…

 _The resort, Angel Grove around 4:30 in the morning_

Tommy arrived in a flash of red and quickly undressed and climbed back in bed. However quiet he tried to be, he ended up waking Billy, who was sleeping next to him.

"Where were you?" he murmured, as though to prevent waking Rocky and Adam.

"Power Ranger emergency, I've already taken care of it. I'll explain more in the morning." Tommy whispered back, before collapsing exhaustedly onto the bed. He was snoring before his head had even hit the pillow. Billy rolled over, wondering what kind of emergency would call for the leader of the power rangers to get up in the middle of the night and not wake the other rangers. He would be certain to quiz him in the morning.

…

 _Paris France_

Trini, Jason, Aisha, Zack, and Kim landed in an empty alleyway. "OK, remember the plan?" Trini asked as they emerged onto the street.

Kim nodded, "Aisha and I will talk to my mom while you take care of what you need to take care of."

…

Kim carefully wheeled herself into the apartment, Pierre was home as well as her mom; she carefully signaled Aisha to teleport into her bedroom to prevent Pierre from finding out that Aisha was there.

"Kimberly," Pierre said with a smile, "Your mother told me you went out with some of your friends from Angel Grove. I didn't expect you home so soon."

"Actually, something came up. Jason mentioned that his grandmother, you know the one that lives with them, is doing pretty poorly, she's been moved to a nursing home, he's planning to go home, and he's wondering if I want to go home with him. The Scott's made their house wheelchair accessible when his grandma moved in. I kinda want to go, I really miss Tommy and the others, and I believe Trini and Zack are coming back with them too."

Caroline frowned, but Pierre was the one who answered, "I see no reason you shouldn't go, as long as your friend's family is okay with it."

"Thank you, Pierre!" Kim shouted, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before wheeling herself into her room.

Caroline followed her daughter into her room and closed the door behind her, "So being with me isn't good enough. You have to throw me to the side again, and chose your friends over me."

"Mom!" Kim exclaimed, flabbergasted that her mom would say that.

"It's not like that at all." Aisha spoke up, "Kim's accident wasn't an accident. Our Mentor believes that we will all be safer in Angel Grove. Being around other rangers will discourage the attacks."

Caroline nodded her head, "I was afraid it was something like that. So have you made arrangements yet?"

"Somewhat," Kim replied.

"I'm teleporting back to Africa and catching a plan to New York, well the others will catch a plane to New York from here. We will meet in New York and continue to Angel Grove from there. We are waiting for our parents to get up before we call them and make plans to meet us at the airport."

"What if the Scott's don't take you in?"

"Mom, this is Mama Scott we are talking about, right?"

…

Jason quickly found Ms. Turner who was helping a girl with a problem, "Ms. Turner," he called out.

Ms. Turner turned to face him, giving him an inquisitive look, "I just found out that my grandmother is very ill, I've decided to go home to be with her one last time."

"I understand Jason, have you made arrangements?"

"Yes, Kim and I are leaving in a few hours."

"Not just Kim," Zack announced, appearing with his suitcase already packed, "Trini and I heard what was going on so we booked on the same flight. The conference just wouldn't be the same without you man.

… three hours later…

 _Africa_

Aisha checked her watch; it was seven in the morning now in Angel Grove, in twelve hours she would be home. She just had to call her parents.

Her mom answered since her father had already left for work. Aisha quickly greeted her, "Hey Mom."

"Aisha, dear, how are you doing?" her mom asked.

"Actually, I've been feeling a bit homesick recently, and have decided to come home, I'll arrive at the airport at seven tonight. I was hoping you and Dad can pick me up."

"Of course, we'll see you there."

…Paris…

Jason decided he would call home first, seeing as he needed to explain Kim's situation to his parents. His father answered the phone, and since his younger brother Jake and his mom were both there, he put it on speaker.

"Hey guys," Jason said, "How's Grandma doing?"

"As good as we can expect at her age." His mom replied.

"Well, I'm coming home."

"What!" nine-year-old Jake exclaimed, "for real."

"Yes for real, and I hope you don't mind, but I'm bringing Kim with me. She was in an accident and is just not recovering from it. The doctors think that a warmer climate might help her a lot."

"No, not at all son." Mr. Scott replied, "in fact, I insist that you bring her along. Is there anything specific we need to be aware of with her?"

Jason smiled, everything was working according to plan, "She damaged her spinal cord pretty badly; she's in a wheelchair and is suffering from depression. I understand that her coach and teammates kind of turned their backs on her. Oh, and her dad told her that he refused to take care of an invalid child for the rest of his life. So she kind of expects people to treat her that way. We were able to get her out of the house for the first time since she was released from the hospital."

"From the sounds of it moving back to Angel Grove would be the best thing for her to do." Mrs. Scott replied, "It's amazing what good friends can do for someone suffering from depression."

"Well, I have to go if I'm to pick up Kim and still make the flight, pick us up around seven at the airport."

After saying goodbye Jason hung up and the others quickly called their parents and arranged for a pick up as well.

…Mountain resort Angel Grove California…

After his late night mission to Paris, Tommy was exhausted. So he wasn't too pleased to wake up to Rocky and Adam arguing on who should wake him up with Billy trying to explain to them that Tommy had been up late last night due to an emergency.

"What kind of emergency would Tommy deal with in the middle of the night and not tell us about it."

Tommy moaned and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "Kim was in Paris." He replied matter-of-factly as if that was the most obvious answer in the world, and to him it was.

…

 **A/N: Whew, Kim's almost home, yeah! Please review, you would be surprised at how happy they make me.**


	4. Chapter 4: The Return of the Crane

**A/N: Wow, so many reviews, PMs, favorites, and followers, so quickly. Well, I know that you aren't here to listen to me ramble on how amazing you guys are ('though you totally are). So on with the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, though maybe one day I will.**

…

 _Previously on 'The Crippled Crane'_

 _After his late night mission to Paris, Tommy was exhausted. So he wasn't too pleased to wake up to Rocky and Adam arguing on who should wake him up with Billy trying to explain to them that Tommy had been up late last night due to an emergency._

 _"What kind of emergency would Tommy deal with in the middle of the night and not tell us about it."_

 _Tommy moaned and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "Kim was in Paris." He replied matter-of-factly as if that was the most obvious answer in the world, and to him it was._

…

Chapter 4: The Return of the Crane

"What!" Rocky, Billy, and Adam exclaimed, they still didn't understand how that would classify as a Power Ranger Emergency, but it was still a startling announcement.

"Just what I said, Kim was in Paris." Tommy stated glancing at the digital clock next to the two beds; it was barely seven o'clock, "actually she still is. Her flight doesn't leave for another fifteen minutes."

"Whose flight doesn't leave for another fifteen minutes?" Kat asked, appearing in the open doorway between the two bedrooms, already showered and dressed.

"Kim's." Rocky announced, nodding toward Tommy, "Apparently, Kim being in Paris classify as a Power Ranger Emergency, but not a big enough one to tell us about it."

"Kim was in Paris?" Kat asked, shocked, why would Kim be in Paris with the Olympics just around the corner. "I can see why that is concerning, but I cannot see why it will be classified as an emergency."

"The reason why Kim was in Paris _that_ was the emergency." Tommy snapped, "Now if you will please allow me to get dressed I will gladly fill you in on what is going on." He turned to Kat, "You might want to pack, I have a feeling this news might cut our vacation short."

…

Kim was grateful that Jason had insisted that Trini push her in the crowded airport. She hadn't had much practice wheeling herself around, and she was starting to hurt from doing it all day. Kim glanced at Jason and Zack who were lugging all the suitcases.

"Are you sure you guys can handle all the suitcases?" Kim asked, feeling guilty, at least half of them were hers.

"I'm fine Sis." Jason insisted as he turned his load in so that it could be loaded onto the plane.

"Just think," Trini exclaimed, "In twelve hours we will be home in Angel Grove."

The boys let out a joyful shout, while Kim shook her head, "I don't know guys, what would the others think about this?" she asked, gesturing downward to her wheelchair.

Jason glanced around, making sure that nobody was near enough to overhear him murmured into his little sister's ear, "The others won't think differently of you."

"I hope you're right." Kim murmured back.

"Of course I'm right, I'm always right, I'm Jason Lee."  
Jason's companions snickered; they knew Jason well enough to come up with several examples how his last statement was not true.

"Come on guys, we're going to miss our flight if we don't hurry." Zack pointed out.

…

"So Kim's in danger because she and Tommy are part of an ancient prophecy?" Rocky asked.

"Why did Kim send the letter, if it wasn't true?" Kat demanded.

Tommy shook his head, "She wasn't thinking straight and was in a lot of pain. Dad once told me that pain can impair decision-making abilities."

The others nodded, before Adam suggested, "I think we need to talk to Ernie about our little secret. Maybe he'll let us use the youth center for a surprise party to welcome them home."

Tommy nodded, "Let's do it, but you need to let their parents know, seeing as they're the ones picking them up."

…

It didn't take long at all to alert their friends' parents of the surprise party they were planning and were now on their way to see if Ernie would let them use the youth center.

It being the weekend a lot of teens were at the gym, working out and hanging around. Ernie was very busy but he made time to go over to see what the Rangers wanted, "Hi guys, what's up?"

"Jason's quit the peace conference and is returning home," Tommy replied, being the only one who knew the cover story.

"I heard that his grandmother wasn't doing so well," Ernie replied with sympathy.

"Yeah," Tommy agreed, "That was one of the reasons he decided to return home. The other reason is the fact that Kim was in an accident and just hasn't recovered from it like she's supposed to. They're hoping that she'll recover better here in Angel Grove."

Ernie's eyes went round, "That's horrible; I hope she gets better soon. So when do they show up?"

"They should be here around seven or seven thirty, and I think Trini was hinting that they weren't showing up alone. I think Trini and Zack might show up as well, and Aisha coming home today as well."

"So I take it that you want to use the youth center for a surprise welcome home party?"

…

It hadn't taken long for the teens to go through some leftover decorations from previous parties that Ernie had hosted and found some stuff that they could use.

Adam pulled out a bunch of green streamers, "What about these streamers?"

Tanya shook her head, "You just like them because they're green."

Adam nodded and put them back into the box, only for Tommy to pull them out again. "These are the leftover streamers from my surprised welcome home party after I became the white ranger. Let's use them; it might bring back happy memories for Kim."

"Here are some streamers from the party for Jason, Trini, and Zack," Billy announced, holding up rolls of red and yellow streamers.

"Here's some leftover from Kim's farewell," Kat announced, holding up pink streamers.

Ernie laughed, "I think half of what I have is from you guys throwing parties."

"Well, thanks for letting us use your leftovers; it defiantly saved us time and money," Tommy replied.

"We still need some odds and ends to finish up with the decorating." Tanya pointed out.

Rocky nodded, "We'll need a cake and other treats too."

"And we need to decorate and invite people." Adam finished.

Tommy frowned, there was something very important that he needed to pick up at the mall but he didn't want to bail on everyone else, but if the girls went with him and got the stuff they needed for the party, he could slip away and pick it up. "I'll take Kat and Tanya to the mall; I have to pick something up for my mom's birthday anyway."

"Wasn't your mom's birthday last week?" Adam asked.

Tommy ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah, I kind of forgot about it."

The others laughed, then Rocky offered to fetch the food and Billy offered to stay behind to start decorating seeing as the news of the party was already spreading as the youth center got busier as the day went on. Adam offered to go with Rocky on the food run.

"Somebody needs to make sure he stays out of the frosting." He explained.

…

Tommy left Kat and Tanya at one store that sold party decorations and headed to the store he needed. He carefully glanced around to make sure that nobody he knew saw him entering the store, if they saw him they would surely badger him about it, if not tease him. He slipped into the store.

"Ah… Mr. Oliver," the sales clerk behind the counter greeted him pleasantly, "What can I do for you?"

Tommy pulled out his wallet, "I want to finish paying off my one bill," he announced, pulling out a large wad of money.

The sales clerk entered the information into the computer before disappearing into the back room. He soon reappeared carrying two small black boxes, which he opened to show Tommy the contents before putting them into a small red gift bag with the store logo on it.

"Will that be all?" He asked.

Tommy frowned; he hadn't been lying about needing something for his mother, he quickly looked around the store, trying to find something that wasn't too expensive, but still nice. He soon found a bracelet that was on clearance. He picked it up and was about to buy it when something caught his attention. There was a pair of pink earrings shaped like cranes. He just had to get them for Kim.

An hour later he left the store completely broke and two gift bags. He hadn't gone far when Kat and Tanya appeared, both burden with a load of bags.

"I thought you just were going to buy one thing," Kat commented, nodding towards the two bags.

"I was," Tommy replied, reaching into one of the bags and pulling out a jewelry box, "Then I saw this," he finished, showing the girls the pair of earrings.

… Angel Grove Airport…

Aisha let out a sigh of relief when the please fasten your seatbelt sign turned back off. She was so glad that the journey was finally over with; her legs were starting to cramp from sitting still too long. She glanced at Zack who was sitting next to her; he was trying to stretch out a kink in his neck from sleeping sitting up. She glanced behind her; a stewardess was helping Jason settle Kim into her wheelchair while Trini grabbed their carry-ons.

Aisha felt kind of guilty that she was glad that Kim was in a wheelchair, but it allowed them to get out of the plane first, so they didn't have to push their way through a crowd to get off the plane. She watched as all of her friends, but Kim stumbled on legs that were either asleep or cramping.

They met up with their parents by the luggage claim. Mrs. Campbell swept Aisha into a large bear hug while she asked her about her trip to Africa. Mr. and Mrs. Kwan enveloped their daughter as they asked about her travels. Zack pounded his father on the back as he told his parents about a crazy stunt he once pulled to get a girl's attention. Jason was down on one knee, talking to Little Jake, who was over the moon with excitement that his big brother was home.

Kim watched as her friends reunited with their families and suddenly felt a pang of loneliness pass through her. She had no family here, her father, who lived in Seattle now, wanted nothing to do with her, her brother was in the air force, serving overseas, and her mom was in Paris. She had Uncle Steve but he was gone a lot as a pilot. Who knows when she'll get to see him again.

Kim was so deep in thought that she hadn't notice Mrs. Scott, or Mama Scott, as all of Jason's friends liked to call her due to her tendency of mothering anyone who seems to need it, approach her until she called her name.

Kim's head quickly snapped up, "Yeah Mama?" she asked, puzzled.

"I was just wondering how you were doing Dear."

"I've been better," Kim admitted, "but being here with the others supporting me, I'll be even better than I've ever been." She added with such joy and energy that the pre-accident Kimberly showed through.

"I hope you are right." Mama Scott said with a laugh.

"Of course I'm right," Kimberly insisted, "Zordon told me that with special instructions and exercises that Alpha will teach me, I'll be walking on my own two feet by the end of the school year."

"I hope for your sake that this Zordon person isn't making you a promise that he can't keep." Mama Scott said.

Jason heard this last comment, "Zordon can do anything. If he could turn five teenagers into superheroes, he can get Kim walking again."

Mama Scott seemed appeased by this comment and a little in awe to realize that both Kim and Jason were mentioning being a power ranger to her.

"Hey, I have an idea." Mr. Taylor announced, "Let's go to the youth center for dinner."

The five teenagers liked the idea a lot, they were all starving. None of them noticed Mr. Taylor winking at the other parents as they grabbed their luggage and headed out to the cars.

…

Tommy looked around the Youth Center, the party was a big success, especially seeing as they threw it together last minute and invitations only came from word of mouth. Their friends had been surprised when they arrived at the youth center to see it decorated in their colors with half the student body of Angel Grove High there to welcome them home.

Kim couldn't believe it when she first entered the Youth Center, pink, red, black, yellow and green streamers hung around the room and a large banner read "Welcome Home Kim!" with smaller banners welcoming her other friends home as well. It was obvious that while the party was for all of them, she was the guest of honor. She knew perfectly well that it was Tommy's doing. She couldn't have asked for a better boyfriend.

Tommy suddenly appeared next to her chair, "Kim, you're here, at last!" he cheered, giving her a peck on the cheek, "I would have met you at the airport, but I was helping finish up here."

Kim reached up and pulled him into a hug. "Tommy, oh, I can't believe you did all of this for me."

Tommy pulled away from her hug, and reached into his pants pockets, pulling out a small jewelry box, "I saw these and thought of you." he said, showing her the earrings he had purchased earlier that day.

Kim's face lit up, as she gave an exclamation of wonder, "They're beautiful, thank you."

Tommy was then somewhat pushed aside as Rocky and Adam surged forward to greet their former teammate. Tommy greeted Aisha and the others warmly, visiting with each of them. He kept an eye on Kim, who was visiting with the girls from the Angel Girls' Club that she and Aisha had been a part of before she left for Florida. He needed to talk to her privately, but it would have to wait.

Kim was fading fast, the Angel Girls were nice enough, but their sympathy was obviously only skin deep. The day's events were catching up to her, and her pain medication was wearing off. For not being to feel from the waist down, the rest of her body more than makes up for it.

Kim quickly discovered that there were two types of party guests, those who came because they felt bad for her, and those who were truly glad to see her. She spent her time with the second group of guests and had a good time. She arranged to go on a shopping spree with the girls and a picnic with Billy.

Despite the fact that she was enjoying herself, the pain was swiftly overcoming her. She glanced around; Ernie was adding more treats to the snack table they had set up. Kim quickly called him over.

"Can you please find Jason, or Mama and Papa Scott if they're still here." She requested.

…

Tommy was with Jason and some of the other member of the football team when Papa Scott approached them, "Kim's had enough, your mom and I are taking her home; call us when you're ready to leave." Jason nodded and promised to do so.

"Don't bother Papa," Tommy insisted, "I'll give him a ride home." He watched them take Kim away, he hadn't had a chance to talk to her in private.

…

 **A/N: done. I wonder what Tommy bought, and why he wants to talk to Kim. Kim's home yeah! Please, please, please review.**


	5. Chapter 5: A Positive Answer

**A/N: Thank you for all your reviews. They make me so happy.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.**

 **Episodes: Inner Spirit**

…

Chapter 5: A positive answer.

Tommy was in Ms. Appleby's class, only half paying attention to her lecture on Native American Traditions. He reached into his pocket to ensure that the little black jewelry box that held the engagement ring was still there. It would be just like him to lose such an important and expensive item. He had had the ring custom made to reflect their power ranger life together, not that the jeweler knew that.

Just then a power surge caused the lights to flicker again like they had all morning. This brought to Tommy's mind the weird dream he had had the night before. What had been wrong with the Megazord? And what was so important about the broken arrowhead that he had been given during his Zeo quest.

The next thing he knew Ms. Appleby was shaking him awake while Bulk and Skull made cracks about him being in love with Kim.

"Tommy," Ms. Appleby said in a tone of voice usually reserved for Bulk and Skull, "What time did you go to bed last night?" She demanded.

"I don't know, we were all together last night, but we all kind of broke off once Kim left."

"Lover Boy." Bulk called out.

"Perhaps you should go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. I understand that you want to spend time with your friends, but you shouldn't let it get in the way of your school work. They aren't going anywhere."

Tommy snorted, "Yeah, and Kim wasn't supposed to go to Paris either, but she ended up there anyway."

"Mr. Oliver," Ms. Appleby snapped, "If you don't behave I will be forced to give you detention."

"Sorry Ms. Appleby, I just have a lot on my mind," Tommy said he really did what with the dream and the arrowhead and needing to ask Kim the most important question in his entire life.

"I'll let you off with a warning this time." Ms. Appleby said, before turning around and giving Bulk and Skull detention for writing inappropriate things on the board while her back was turned, "Now remember Class I want an essay on what you learned during the Native American Art Exhibit, due tomorrow."

…

Tommy appeared in a flash of red light in the Command Chamber only to find Kim sitting in her chair, waiting for him. Tommy stared at her; he had come straight from school, how had she beaten him here?

Kim smiled sweetly, "They're still working on my schedule, and I had to shadow Kat today. Seeing as she has dance last period and there wasn't any way that I could participate the teacher let me go to the study hall instead."

"But instead of going to the study hall, you came here?" Tommy asked, impressed, he wished he could have a doctor's note excusing him from class.

Zordon cleared his voice, reminding the two lovebirds why they had come to the command Chamber in the first place. "It is time for the two of you to be trained to fulfill the prophecy of the Power Couple."

"What exactly can we do as the Power Couple?" Tommy asked, glancing first at Kim and then Zordon.

"To be quite honest, nobody knows for certain what the Power of the Power Couple is. We only know that it is powerful enough that it not only is indestructible but that it has the ability to restore other powers, as was seen with the Mighty Morphin' Green Ranger Power." Zordon stated.

"So you are going to teach us to use powers, and you don't know what those powers are?" Kim asked, confused, she had never heard Zordon come up with a plan so full of holes.

"I believe that going over certain recent events we can figure out what some of your powers are, and we can go from there."

Kim frowned, "The accident, I morphed just by thinking about morphing, I didn't even have a morpher. At the time I didn't even think that I had powers."

"It is highly possible that the two of you have Power Couple Suits, however, it is up to you to come up with a morphing call to summon them yourselves." Zordon reasoned.

"What about the dreams Aisha and I had?" Tommy asked, "And the dream I had last night, what was up with that?"

"I suspect that your dreams have something to do with your new powers," Zordon admitted, "Not only are you seeing things before they are happening, but you are able to see what Kimberly sees. As for Aisha, Ninjar tells me that the spirit animals reside inside of the ninjetti now, and can be used to communicate as Kim was able to use Baka for."

"So what are we waiting for?" Tommy asked, "Where do we start?"

A minute later Tommy was sitting in a chair facing the wall, knowing that Kim was across the room, facing the opposite wall. _I feel like a little kid in time out._ He thought glumly, wishing he could say it out loud if only to break the eerie silence, but they had been told not to turn around or speak to each other.

Tommy heard a snort of laughter come from across the room, then a thought popped, unannounced, into his head, sounding surprisingly like Kim's voice; _I would like to know what I did to get put into time out._

Tommy straightened up, fighting the urge to turn around and check on Kim, he had been told not to turn around, _I hope Kim's okay. I wonder what she laughed at._

Just then a new thought popped into his head, _okay this is weird, not only did that sounded like Tommy, but I referred to myself in the third person._

Tommy froze, he was hearing Kim's thoughts or was he, there was only one way to know for sure. _Think about a memory, any memory you want._

 _There was the time at the lake; right after you lost your Green Ranger Powers for the first time…_ The thought trailed off, and Tommy could see in his mind the kiss. "I'm sorry to break the silence Zordon, but I need to verify something with Kim. You were thinking about our first kiss just now won't you?"

"Yes." Kim gasped in surprise, "You mean those strange thoughts I had come from you?"

Tommy shrugged, "Probably, seeing as I was hearing your thoughts. How about I think about a memory and see if you hear it. That's if that's okay with Zordon?"

"I am fine with this," Zordon admitted, "It is a good idea if you know if what you are experiencing is real or a trick of the mind."

Tommy closed his eyes, _I was new at school, and I saw Bulk and Skull harassing you._

"You're thinking about the time we first met," Kim announced.

"Impressive," Zordon stated after Tommy confirmed the memory, "I want you to try to have a completely silent conversation."

"Does the conversation about how we feel like naughty children that have been put in time out count as a silent conversation." Tommy and Kim asked in almost perfect unison.

Zordon agreed that they could go after they promised to practice this new skill, "Tomorrow we will have the other Ninjetti train with you on how to use your spirit animals as messengers and such. Kim, make sure you do the exercises Alpha showed you every night if you need help ask one of the Scotts."

…

Tommy teleported, with Kim, to the lake in the park; near the place where the two of them had shared their first kiss. Kim was surprised, she had assumed they would teleport a little closer to the youth center, "Tommy why are we here?"

Tommy absentmindedly reached into his pocket to check to make sure the ring was still there. "Beautiful, I love you a lot, you know that right?"

"I love you too, handsome, but what are you getting at?"

"These past few months after you moved to Florida, and especially the past week when I thought you didn't care for me anymore made me realize that I am incomplete without you by my side." Tommy explained, "I don't want to lose you again," he pulled out the ring and got down on one knee, "Kimberly Anne Hart will you make me the happiest man you know and be my bride."

Kim stared in wonder at her boyfriend on one knee, asking her to marry him. "I don't know. I'm going to have to think about it."

Tommy's face fell, until he noticed Kim's teasing smile, as she added, "Psyche, I couldn't make it too easy on you, now could I. Yes! Yes! Oh, a million times yes."

Tommy laughed; it was good to know that Kim felt up to teasing him, as he slipped the ring on her finger. It was a beautiful ring, with a large pink diamond surrounded by four little green gemstones, and a gold band that was studded with little white diamonds.

"Pink, green and white united as one." Kim murmured, holding her hand up to see how the ring caught the light of the sun, "It's beautiful."

After that Tommy started to push Kim towards the youth center, while Kim admired her ring, "How did you afford this, it must have cost you a small fortune."

"It did, I started saving every penny I could after I got my Tigerzord powers. By the time we got our ninjetti powers, I had enough for a down payment, so I ordered the ring. It's custom made, in case you're wondering. When I found out you were coming home, I only had one payment left."

"You've been saving for this ring for two and a half years," Kim stated, impressed.

"I should have start saving when I first met you." Tommy quipped.

"So," Kim asked, "we're getting married, now the question is when?"

Tommy laughed at the change of topic, "I promised Mom and Dad I won't get married until after I graduate from high school."

"So the week after graduation?" Kim suggested as they arrived at the Youth Center.

Kim rolled herself into the center while Tommy used the payphone to call his Mom and tell her the news.

As she headed towards Adam, Rocky, and Tanya, where they were standing at the edge of the crowds, she sensed Tommy get distracted with something else and drove off in his truck. She rolled her eyes; Tommy could get distracted so easily.

Just then another power surge caused the lights to flicker again. Ernie, who was about to go out to check the fuse box, spotted Kim and called out a greeting.

Adam, Rocky, and Tanya heard him and made room in their little huddle for her. Almost immediately, Tanya spotted the ring and asked for a closer look.

Kim held her left hand up, "Isn't it beautiful, Tommy had it custom made."

Adam and Rocky grinned like silly gooses, so that was why Tommy wanted to go to the mall Saturday. "When did this happen?" Adam asked, grabbing her hand to examine the ring.

"Not even ten minutes ago at the lake in the park."

"Does Jason know?" Rocky asked.

Kim shook her head, "No, like I said, it just happened, we haven't even told our parents yet."

Tanya frowned, "I'm sorry, I agree that it was really sweet of Tommy to give Kim the ring, but why are you two making such a big deal about it?"

Rocky, Adam, and Kim looked at each other before looking at Tanya, "We forgot that you're from Africa and might not understand some of our traditions." Adam apologized.

"Traditions?" she asked, confused.

Kim nodded, "When a man asks a woman to marry him, he gives her what is called an engagement ring." She held up her hand again, "Like this one."

"So the ring means that Tommy asked you to marry him?" Tanya asked.

"More than that," Rocky added, "It means she said yes."

Just then Trini and Jason came up behind them, "What are you guys gossiping about?" Jason demanded.

"Nothing," Kim responded, winking at Rocky as she said it, "We were just explaining to Tanya about engagement rings."

"That's right," Aisha spoke up, having come up to hear that last little bit, "I almost forgot, the village didn't do engagement rings."

Zack approached just then, "So who proposed to who?"

"Tommy," Rocky said, with an impish smile, it wouldn't be hard to figure out that Tommy had proposed to Kim.

Just then Tommy appeared, "Man I just met someone that I am sure knows something about my Arrowhead, but when I went back to ask him about it. He was gone. I have no idea on where he went." With that, the power flickered then went out.

"Not to worry everybody," Ernie called out, "It probably is just a blown fuse."

As soon as Ernie left Zordon contacted the power rangers to fight the cause of the blackout, one of King Mondo's creations called Main Drain.

…

Billy and Trini looked at the report that the computer had run over the Megazord, "According to this," Billy stated, "It will take three to four days to repair the Zords."

"How are we going to stop Main Drain without our Zords?" Kat asked.

"Maybe the two lovebirds over here can do something," Zack suggested before dancing behind Alpha to avoid retaliation.

"No, I do not think that it would be wise for Tommy and Kimberly to reveal themselves as of yet. They don't know the extent of their powers nor how to control them. Besides, Kimberly cannot fight in her current condition."

Zack opened his mouth to make a comment, but Kim beat him to it, "He means the wheelchair Zack, nothing else, so would you please keep your comment to yourself."

"Then what can we do?" Tommy asked, after giving Zack a dirty look. He might not know Zack as well as Kim did, but he still had a good idea what Zack had been thinking.

"You'll have to use the Red Battlezord, it's highly experimental, but it's currently our best option," Billy stated.

…

Tommy was struggling to control the new zord and gain the upper hand, when Kim entered his mind and said, _I've been watching the battle from the command Chamber. You have been fighting the zord instead of working with it. It's just like Arithmetic Gymnastics, the ribbon is just an extension of your arm. The Zord is just an extension of your body. Work with it and it would work with you._

Tommy nodded and using her advice defeated the monster.

…

After school the next day, Tommy went to the place where he had dropped Sam Trueheart off the day before. He had been excused from training with Zordon to clear his mind and find the answer to the mysterious arrowhead he was given. As he got out of the truck he saw a man who looked just like him.

He blinked and the man was gone.

…

 **A/N: there you go, please review, they make me so happy.**


	6. Chapter 6: We Are Family

**A/N: thank you to all my wonderful reviewers. Special thanks to SpecialK92 and SkyTalon for allowing me to bounce my ideas off them. SkyTalon you are the best little sister I can have. Just please don't tell StormySkies8 I said that.**

 **SkyTalon: consider Stormy told!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own power rangers. If I did, I will be really rich. I also don't own the song that inspired this chapter.**

 **Episodes: Challenges and brother can you spare an arrowhead.**

 **SkyTalon asked me if I would do hints for each chapter like I do with of Secrets and Weddings, So HINT: David, "I just got one up by a girl in a wheelchair." Jason, "That's Kim for Yah." David: "You mean the Kim, the one Tommy's engaged to?"**

…

Chapter 6: We are Family

The last week had both flown by and dragged on forever at the same time if that was even possible. Finally, it was over with and the weekend could begin. Not that they could really relax. Tommy was taking the weekend to complete the vision quest that Sam Trueheart had suggested he take. He would have gone earlier but he couldn't risk missing more school than necessary.

Billy was working on the damaged Zords and, if Kim could understand his and Trini's techno-speak correctly, a new Ultrazord meant for the Power Couple, and Kim suspected that Kat would join him at least part of the time. Zack had been the one to point out how Billy and Kat danced around each other, comparing it to Tommy's and Kim's relationship when Tommy was the Green Ranger the first time around.

She wasn't sure what Rocky was up to, Trini and Jason were planning a picnic in the park with Adam and Tanya. Zack had mentioned a new club that had opened while he was in Switzerland. Aisha had heard of a dog at the animal center that was a service animal whose previous owner had passed away. She was going to see if the dog could help Kim with tasks that she sometimes struggle with, like opening and closing doors.

Kim, herself, had some things on her to do list, the topmost importance was to call her mom and inform her of her engagement. She wasn't sure how her mom would take the news. She had always stressed that she should get a college education before settling down, but she knew that this engagement was the right thing. Tommy had been right when he said he hadn't felt complete while she had been in Florida. She had felt the same way.

Her family and friends had been ecstatic, Zordon had congratulated them, and Alpha had cried with joy to the point that everyone was afraid he might start rusting. Jason had pulled Tommy to the side and gave him the "you better treat her right," lecture. Of course, the girls wanted to know every detail of what happened and started to plan the wedding.

The best response of all had to be Bulk and Skull, apparently, there had been a jewel thief recently, and they had been certain that the ring had been stolen. They had kept pestering her during class until Ms. Appleby had had enough and sent them to the principal office.

She glanced at her watch, she couldn't put it off any longer, any later and it would be the middle of the night. She rolled herself over to the phone and dialed the long distance number. It rang several times before Pierre answered.

"Bonjour."

"Hi Pierre," Kim said, "Is Mom home?"

There was some background noise and Caroline was on the phone. "Sweetheart, how are you doing?"

"Good, I mean great, Mama Scott actually threatened to ground me for missing curfew last night," Kim said with a smirk, she and the other Ninjetti Power Rangers had been at the power chamber, supposedly training.

"What time did you come home?" Caroline asked.

"Oh," Kim said, playing with a strand of hair, "About two in the morning."

"To think that I had a hard time getting you out of bed and Mrs. Scott can't get you home."

"Mom!" Kim gasped, laughing softly, "Between school, hanging out with friends, physical therapy, and my _Job,_ I have a lot of stuff on my plate. Plus Tommy proposed to me, so I've been planning a wedding as well."

Caroline gasped, "Don't you think you're a little too young to get married, you aren't even out of high school."

"I'm the same age you were when you and Dad got engaged."

"Precisely, and you saw what became of that. You're just too young; you should wait until you're more mature when you can handle the responsibilities of a married life."

"Mom!" Kim was kind of shocked, "I can handle the responsibility of being a superhero, and you think I can't handle married life."

"Well," Mrs. Dumas paused, "I'm just worried, in your condition; Tommy's probably going to end up cheating on you."

"Tommy isn't like that, Mom, he makes me happy."

"Fine, but don't come crying to me when he breaks your heart." Caroline snapped, hanging up the phone with a loud click.

Kim slowly hung up the phone, wiping her watery eyes with the back of her hand. She knew that her mom would disapprove the engagement; she had made it quite clear when Kim was younger that she expected her to attend college, or at least live on her own for a while. And she had done that, with Florida.

Mama Scott entered the kitchen, and seeing Kim fighting tears next to the phone, she pulled up a chair and asked what was wrong.

"My mom, she seems to think that Tommy is going to cheat on me, and she won't have anything to do with me until I call off the wedding," Kim growled she was actually really mad at her mother for even suggesting that Tommy would be unfaithful. He had admitted to going on a date with Kat, but it had been as friends, like the time she had gone to a dance with Zack. Tommy hadn't been able to go, his uncle was in town that night and he had wanted to visit with him. Zack had been stood up so Kim had gone with him.

…

Rocky entered the youth center to see a large crowd of people milling around some sort of ring. He quickly spotted Ernie and headed towards him, "The youth center sure is busy today, what's going on?"

"I found someone willing to teach free boxing lessons," Ernie explained, nodding toward the boxing ring.

"Boxing has its own set of rules and regulation; maybe I can incorporate it into my own fighting style. King Mondo won't know what hit him."

"You should sign up then." Ernie encouraged, "What about your friends, any of them interested?"

Rocky shook his head, "As far as I know Kim's the only one available, and although she can still throw a good punch, she might have a hard time getting into the ring."

"Oh, what are the others up to, I didn't hear the monster alarm go off, but then again you'd be with them if it had."

Rocky closed his eyes, focusing on the spirit Ape that lived inside of him, _Balbir, What are the others doing?_

 _ **Aisha is heading to Kim's house, Baka has called for her, Kim's mom disapproves the engagement and refuses to be part of Kim's life until she calls the wedding off. Baka says that Kim is upset with this but still plans to go through with the wedding.**_

 __ _Kim's an adult now, she lived on her own for several months, it should be her decision on when and who she marries._

 _ **Yes, Baka seems to think that too.**_

 __ _Where are the others?_

 _ **Adam and Haracha are at the park with Tanya, Jason, and Trini. Consalvo is helping Billy and Kat at the Power Chamber. Sahen and Tommy are on his vision quest.**_

 __"Adam, Tanya, Jason, and Trini are on a double date; Billy and Kat are off working on one of Billy's inventions. Aisha is comforting Kim, she just had an argument with her mother."

…

Tommy quickly helped the mysterious stranger up from the cliff that he was dangling from after the earthquake. Tommy nodded in reply to the man's thanks, scanning the skies for the falcon. It was gone. Great, just great, today had not gone at all like what he had been expecting. First Kim had contacted him through their mental link, distraught because her mother wanted nothing to do with the upcoming wedding. Then Rocky, walking home from a free boxing lesson, gets ambushed and kidnapped by Prince Sprocket. Tommy had to go help out with that because the Megazord still wasn't operational yet, and he was the only one who could pilot the red battle zord.

"Your quest is over, I am your brother," the stranger said, "I was adopted by Sam Trueheart, our mother's father."

Just then the falcon swooped down and landed on Tommy's arm. Tommy took one look at it, "Sahen, why didn't you tell me what was going on."

 _ **The journey to the truth prepares you to accept the truth. You would not have believed me if I had told you.**_ Sahen stated before returning to his resting place next to Tommy's heart.

David watched amazed at how at ease Tommy was with the falcon spirit animal, talking to it as if it was an old friend. "Not many men actually commune with their spirit animals." He commented, "You act like old friends."

"My friends and I once went on a journey to find a way to save a good friend of ours who was dying. During the journey, we met an ally of our friend who helped us connect with our spirit animals." Tommy explained, "A few months ago, my fiancée was in an accident, her spirit animal went to our one friend, telling her that she needed help. Since then, we have treated them like our closest friends."

"You're engaged," David asked, in awe, "Man, I can't even get a girlfriend."

Just then Tommy's stomach growled reminding him that he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before. David laughed, "Grandfather and I live nearby, why don't you come for supper?" then he paused, pulling out a broken arrowhead, "you don't happen to have the other half of the arrowhead do you?" he asked.

It didn't take long for them to learn that the two halves would magically forge into one whole. David offered it to Tommy, "Grandfather told me that the Arrowhead has special powers that have to be kept out of the hands of evil at all times."

…

Tommy ended up spending the night at the Truehearts', by the time he and David had finished talking it was quite late, and Sam had insisted that he not try to go home in the dark. So it was Sunday morning when he and David went to the youth center together.

Rocky, Adam, Jason, and Zack were having their usual morning spar while Aisha, Tanya, Kat, and Trini studied for a test the next day. Tommy told David to wait as he went over to the girls, who were less likely to accidentally kick him than the boys.

"Hey," he greeted them, "Look at this." He held out his now completed arrowhead.

Kat reached out to touch it, "When did this happen?" she asked.

"There's someone I like you to meet," Tommy said, motioning for David to come over. Jason and the others had noticed the Tommy look alike and had come over just in time to hear Tommy, "Guys, I will like to introduce my brother, David Trueheart." He announced pounding David on the back, "David this is Aisha, Tanya, Kat, Trini, Adam, Rocky, Zack, and Jason." Just then he frowned, realizing that two of his friends were missing.

"Where are Billy and Kim?" he asked, glancing at Jason.

Jason shrugged, "Billy's finishing fixing something up." he said, discreetly glancing at David to explain that he wasn't going to elaborate with him so close, "Kim had a rough night last night, she kept having really weird dreams. First, you were trapped in a cave underground, only it wasn't you, 'cause you were trying to get him out. Then I became the gold power ranger, and you thought you were the king of the Machine Empire."

Tommy laughed, "That's quite the dream."

"There's more," Jason said, "Trini and I turned evil and I threw you into a lava pit. Then the two of us were on the moon with a lot of others, all wearing red. Then you were on an exploding island and then you were _Black."_

"Impressive, she really has an active imagination," Tommy said, _I wonder if the dreams will come true like my dream of Kim's accident._

"Hey, I saw you four sparring, you looked good," David said, changing the topic, he had a feeling that there was more to the dreams that his brother's friend refused to tell him in front of him. He hadn't missed the hints and glances he passed towards him.

"You're into martial arts?" Tommy asked, pushing thoughts of dreams and possible meanings out of his mind as he offered to spar, "I have an extra gi in my locker." He announced, racing off to the locker room, but not before he heard Jason tell David, "He only keeps an extra gi in his locker so he has one here when he forgets his from home."

"I heard that!" Tommy called out.

The spar ended quickly, Tommy saw an opening and took it, and now David seemed upset.

 _I think you embarrassed him, no one likes being one-upped, especially a little brother._

 _What should I do?_

 _Apologize; offer to buy him a smoothie._

 _Good idea,_ Tommy thought, Kim always helps him figure things out. He quickly ran outside to catch David, just to see him get kidnapped by cogs.

…

Tommy watched as the Machine Empire's latest creation, Mace Face, knocked the Megazord to the ground. Both the red battle zord and the Megazord weren't making a dent in it, while they were getting creamed. He had tried forming the mega battle zord, but he was so worried about David, who they know was in a cave underground with a great evil, that he couldn't focus.

Finally, Mace Face retreated, allowing them to regroup.

"Both Zords received damage; it will be a couple of hours before they are operational again," Billy announced.

"What will we do if that monster comes back before then?" Tanya asked, concern in her voice, would they really lose now, after everything they've been through together.

Kim rolled herself over to the others, "We'll have to use the Power Couple Ultrazord."

"But, it uses the same interfaces as the mega battle zord does. If Tommy can't control the red Battle zord, he can't control the Ultrazord." Billy pointed out.

"Then we're going to have to find a way to bypass that," Trini stated, giving Billy a challenging look.

It wasn't long after that did Tommy tried to rescue David only to be stopped by King Mondo's force fields. He would have tried again, but Mace Face was back, and the Zords weren't operational yet, meaning that he and Kim would be going into battle as the Power Couple for the first time, seeing as they were the only ones who could operate the Ultrazord.

He entered the power chamber, "How are we going to do this. Is Kim using Kat's Zeonizer? Are we using our Ninjetti powers, now that we got them back or what?"

Kim spoke up, "We'll use our Couple Suits."

Tommy smiled, giving her shoulder a squeeze of support, he could tell that she was nervous, even though they would be in the Ultrazord for the fight, it would be the first time she went to battle since the accident, "You'll be fine, Beautiful, I'll be with you the whole time."

He looked up at a small popping sound; Billy and Trini were leaning over a rapidly smoking machine. "Let me guess the new programming isn't working?"

"We're going to have to work with the old interface," Kim stated.

"Kimberly, I believe that while you are morphed, you should have control of your limbs, however, you should still exercise caution because you will still be injured," Zordon explained.

"Right." Kim nodded.

Tommy stepped in front of Kim's wheelchair, remembering the morphing call and hand signals they worked out, "Pink," He called, raising his right hand over his head, "Green," he shouted, raising his left hand, "and White," he brought his two hands together over his head, "unite!" he finished, moving both hands down to cover his heart.

"Pink, Green and White, Unite!" Kim shouted, going through the same hand motions. Soon Tommy _and Kim_ were standing shoulder to shoulder in new suits. Kim's suit looked a lot like her old pink uniform, except with the pink area being dark pink, the white area being light pink, and a golden shield, like Tommy's old Dragon shield, that looked like a crane in flight, "Nice, wish I can track down Scorpina."

Tommy's suit was white with a golden shield, like the one he had with his white ranger powers, only it had the image of a falcon engraved in it, and the cuffs had green and red zigzagged stripes on them. The best part, however, was what was in the scabbard on his hip, "Saba!"

"It's good to see you again," Saba said, floating out of his scabbard so he could talk to Tommy face to face, "So you are the power couple, I thought it might be you."

Kim rolled her eyes, though nobody could see her from beneath the tinted visor, "Great I have to fight for the attention of my fiancé with a talking sword."

…

Kim and Tommy landed in front of the monster, who immediately got confused, "Who are you?"

Tommy stepped forward, "We are the Power Couple, the strongest and most powerful power rangers in the history of the entire universe."

Kim nodded, stepping up to join him, "I suggest you leave now and never come back."

Mace Face laughed, "Why should I be scared of you? How do I even know that you're telling the truth?"

"Well, isn't that rude," Saba stated, "Doesn't the beast know that Power Rangers are known for their honesty."

"We're just going to have to prove ourselves to him then." Kim stated, before she and Tommy raised their hands up in the familiar zord call position, and shouted in unison, "Power Couple Ultrazord, now!"

The Ultrazord reminded the couple of a Cybertonian, as it was a jet plane that transformed into robot when it first came into view. Kim and Tommy smiled as they jumped into the cockpit.

"Nice stereo," Kim stated, turning the knob to her favorite station.

"You do that every time you get a new zord, don't you?" Tommy asked as he fired up the weapons.

"Yes I do, it helps drown out the monster's insults." She replied, aiming the weapons at Mace Face. The monster quickly burst into flames and disappeared.

…

After the monster was defeated, Tommy and Kim returned to base. Everyone gathered around to congratulate them. Kim turned to Zordon, "Can I just stay morphed? I'm so sick and tired of that wheelchair, you don't even know."

"I am afraid, Kimberly, that staying morph not only will break the keep your identity secret rule, but it also breaks the personal gain rule as well." Seeing Kimberly's disappointed look, she had taken off her helmet, he added: "However morphing does speed up the healing process, so each time you morph will bring you closer to leaving the wheelchair behind for good."

Kim smiled, as she sat down in the wheelchair and said, "Power down." No sooner had she powered down did she double over in pain, grabbing her leg, "Why do my legs hurt so much, and why can I feel it?" she demanded.

"It appears that morphing repaired the nerve damage." Alpha five explained.

"At the rate of healing you showed before you morphed and the amount of healing you showed while you were morphed, I say if you morphed a couple more times you can leave the wheelchair behind," Billy stated checking the numbers on a computer.

"While that may be true," Zordon stated, "I find it unwise to use the Power Couple unless it is the only choice. To do otherwise would be violating the do not escalate a fight rule, seeing how powerful you are."

"Does this mean Tommy can't be red ranger, cause if so, I'll be red." Zack volunteered.

"Tommy can continue to be red ranger, Zachary, but thank you for the offer."

Just then Alpha announced that an evil monster that had been trapped in the cave with David had captured him and escaped. Tommy quickly morphed into Zeo ranger five red and teleported out.

…

David couldn't believe that this creature had captured him and that the Red Ranger had come to his rescue. Soon he was up on a hill a safe distance away. "I have to go back," he insisted, "They have the arrowhead, which means they have my brother."

Tommy winced, remembering how; when he first couldn't reach David; King Mondo ransomed the arrowhead for his brother. He had given him the arrowhead, despite the fact that Kim was reminding him of all the times Goldar ransomed different things for the power coins and never came through on his end.

"What's important is that you're safe. Get somewhere safe." Tommy replied.

"You don't even care, I have to go back. They have my younger brother."

"I'll get him," Tommy assured his older brother.

"You don't understand I knew that the arrowhead could be dangerous in the wrong hands, but I gave it to my little brother, putting him at risk. I don't want to explain to his fiancée that I put her fiancé in danger. I haven't even met her yet." David exclaimed, frustrated.

"Trust me, she'll laugh and ask you to tell her something new," Tommy replied, repeating what Kim sent him as a reply to David's statement.

"You don't even care," David accused, "my little brother is in danger and you're just cracking jokes."

 _You're going to have to tell him, it's the only way he will go to safety._ Kim sent.

Tommy took a deep breath, "I do care," he stated, taking off his helmet, "that's why I want you to go meet up with some of my friends in the park, I'll meet up with you later."

…The park…

Jason was pushing Kim through the park, enjoying time alone with his little sister, and to have one of their soul-searching talks, "How do I know if Trini really likes me."

Kim made an astonished noise, "You're planning to pop the question?"

Jason shook his head, even though Kim couldn't see him, "Yes, I mean no, I mean, I don't know. We've been dating for awhile now, you know. We got together right before we went to Switzerland. I love her a lot, but we haven't experienced the trials and tribulations that you and Tommy have. How do I know that what we have isn't just a fair sailing relationship?"

Kim frowned, "I guess I never thought about that, Tommy and I have been through so much together, his green ranger powers, when Kat stole my power coin, Florida, we never had to wonder about that."

David had just arrived at the park, looking for some of Tommy's friends. He suspected that Tommy wanted him with his friends so that they could protect them. His baby brother was off saving the world, while he spent his days on the reservation, riding his horse, and he had a girl too, he wonders if being a superhero helped him with that.

He spotted one of Tommy's friends, talking to a girl in a wheelchair. He called out, "Hey, you're one of Tommy's friends, aren't you?"

Jason turned around, "David, hi, that's right, I'm Jason, and this is my little sister Kim."

Kim waved hello and the three visited for some time, unaware that King Mondo was planning on kidnapping them to hold ransom so that the power rangers would give up their powers.

David was enjoying visiting with Jason, who had been all over the world when a bunch of cogs appeared out of nowhere and attacked. David and Jason tried to draw them away from Kim, fighting them off to the best of their abilities.

Kim was surrounded and was trapped in her wheelchair unless she morphed, but she wasn't supposed to morph unless she really had to. She flung her arm out wildly, trying to knock some of the cogs away; however, a blast of energy escaped her hand, decapitating the cogs she had tried to knock away.

Kim frowned, how had she did that, she had simply flipped her arm out. She did it again, receiving the same result she did before. Soon the other cogs realized what she could do and disappeared. David and Jason returned, Jason saying, "I guess we were better fighters then they thought; they ran away."

David glanced at the carnage surrounding Kim's chair, "I just got one-upped by a girl in a wheelchair."

"That's Kim for yah, always full of surprises." Jason quipped.

Kim nodded her head in agreement, "Don't let the chair fool you."

Jason winced, "Are you sure you didn't threaten Tommy into proposing to you?"

David gasped; this was his baby brother's girl?

…

David ended up going with Jason and Kim to the youth center. As he talked to Kim, he saw why Tommy fell in love with her. Heck if it wasn't for the fact that she was engaged to his little brother, who can beat his butt, he might have asked her out.

Tommy soon arrived and returned his half of the arrowhead. He finally had something to look forward to, each time he can come into Angel Grove to see his little brother and his fiancée.

…

 **A/N: there you go. A little story about boxing, when my niece was two we went to buffalo wild wings and they had boxing on, she shook her little fist at the tv and said, "no, no Mommy put time out." Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, this chapter was twice as long as usual. Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7: Gaining Trust

**A/N: here we go chapter 7, special thanks to all who reviewed, and SpecialK92 for their help on this chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own power rangers.**

 **Hint: Don't underestimate the girl in the wheelchair.**

 **Episode: Trust in Me**

…

Chapter 7: Gaining trust

 _Kim was woken from a deep sleep by a cold laugh that sent shivers down her spine. She had hoped that she would never have to hear the laughter of Rita Repulsa ever again, but it seems that that wasn't going to happen. She slowly opened her eyes to discover that she was chained to a chair in some sort of warehouse._

 _Rita laughed, "What's wrong Pink Ranger, unable to fight back?"_

 _Kim growled, "Dream on, Rita, Tommy will find me."_

 _"Puh…lease," Rita suddenly turned into Tommy, "Why would I want to be with anybody that can't even stand on her own two feet. What a nag, your father was right you're just a waste of breath now."_

 _Kim started thrashing against her chains, trying hard to get free; knowing what was coming next. Sure enough, the room started to fill with water swirling around her as her parents, coach, and all of her teammates pointed at her and mocked as the water got higher and higher._

"No!" she cried out, bolting up in her bed, drenched in sweat, gasping for breath. It was just the dream again. She sighed, she hadn't had it since she had moved back to Angel Grove and had earnestly hoped that she had left that dream in Paris.

Footsteps pounded down the stairs, and soon Jason, wearing only a pair of red pajama pants, burst into her room, his hair sticking up at odd angles, "What's wrong? I heard you scream." He demanded.

Kim threw her head back against her headboard; she had forgotten how light a sleeper Jason could be. "I'm fine, it was just a nightmare."

Jason plumped down on her bed, "Would you like to talk about it?"

"No! Just go back to sleep Jason!" Kim snapped, pulling her blanket over her head.

 _What happened?_ Tommy's voice filtered through her mind, kind of groggily, as if he had just been woken up.

 _Go back to bed,_ she growled, throwing her blanket off to find Jason still standing there.

"I'm not going back to bed until you tell me about the dream." He insisted.

Realizing that Jason wasn't going to give up, there was a reason why he made such a good power ranger, she told him about the dream.

Jason frowned, "That wasn't Tommy, sis," he grabbed her left hand and fingered her ring, "This is Tommy, the guy who loves you no matter what. The one that wants to be with you no matter how bad the situation gets. Next time you have the dream, call that faker out, show them the ring, and if that doesn't work, call me in. Remember I promised Kenny that I would always be there for you. I just wish that I have kept my promise a little better."

"Jason, you can't blame yourself for the accident, because it won't change what happened."

"I should have learned about it sooner, not six weeks after it happened." 

…

Rocky, Tanya, and Billy were headed to the Youth Center. At school, Rocky had heard about a Karate Demonstration of a girl that could defend herself against multiple opponents and had wanted to see for himself if it was true. Billy had agreed to come along with him as did Tanya, who was just as curious.

After the demo, and learning that the girl was blind, Rocky went over to talk to her. "Where did you learn to fight like that? You were amazing." He stated, introducing himself and his friends.

"Thank you," Penny stated; grabbing her bag which spilled opened.

"Here let me help you," Rocky stated, bending down to help her.

"No that's okay, I don't need help." Penny insisted, gathering her stuff up and leaving.

 _Balbir, can you ask Kim for advice on what to do?_

 _ **You like her, don't you?**_

 __ _Ha, ha, very funny, she's cool, think about what the Rangers could learn from her. If we can just get her to trust us._

 _ **Very well,**_ Balbir stated disappearing to find Baka.

 _ **Yes, Rocky, you wanted to talk to Kim.**_ Baka asked.

 _Yeah, any thoughts on how to get close to Penny, she's an amazing fighter._

 _ **Kim would like to see if she can't meet her.**_

…

Kimberly was at one of the tables at the new study center at the high school, doing homework with Jason sitting next to her, rubbing his eyes and yawning every once in a while. "You know Jason; you could have gone back to bed last night, instead of sitting by my bed all night."

Kim hadn't been very surprised when she had woken up that morning to find Jason asleep in a chair next to her bed. He had insisted that he wait to go to bed until Kim had fallen back asleep. Apparently, he had never left after that.

"I wanted to be there in case you needed me," Jason replied.

"You heard me in the middle of the night, when I wasn't trying to get anybody's attention, I'm pretty sure that I could get your attention if I needed you."

Tommy smiled, sitting down next to Kim after he gave her a quick kiss. "So what is going on here, what is Sahen talking about Rocky having a crush on someone?"

Kim nodded to where Penny was reading a story to a group of children, "Apparently she is quite a fighter."

Tommy nodded; noticing how good she was with the kids, showing them how she uses her other senses to tell her what was around her. She explained how blind people could do everything other people could do. "I understand how she feels; last week Rocky wouldn't let me sharpen my own pencils if he was in the classroom."

…

Penny was comforting a little girl who was looking for her lost puppy Fluffy. Just then a large dog barreled into them, licking their faces ecstatically. "Pocco, come back here boy." Kim called out, "Sorry about that, he just gets overzealous sometimes."

"Just like his owner," Rocky added.

"Rocky!" Kim snapped, before reaching out and trying to grab the leash, "Pocco," she called out, "fetch!" as she pointing to the leash, the black lab picked up the leash and handed it to her, wagging its tail.

"Hey, Bulk, Skull; what's up with the costumes?" Kim asked looking at the two junior police force members disguised as statues.

"Shhh…" Bulk hissed, "We're doing an undercover exam today, we have to go all day without getting caught."

Kim and Rocky looked at each other, "Good luck with that." they said in almost perfect unison.

Bulk and Skull huffed as they got up and left. Rocky smiled, "Hi Penny, it's me Rocky, and this is my friend Kim and well, you already met her service dog, Pocco."

"That I have," Penny said with a laugh, petting the dog, "Rocky I should apologize, I know that you were just trying to be nice, it's just the fact that…"

"There's so many stuff that you can't do that you have a hard time excepting help with something you can do." Kim suggested, "I know what you mean. Maybe between the two of us, we can train Rocky."

"Then let's see if he can walk us to the bus stop," Penny said, smirking.

"You can walk but I'll just have to roll with it." Kim said, then, seeing Penny's confused look, explained, "I'm in a wheelchair."

The three teens were almost to the bus stop when Penny paused, "What's that sound?"

Kim and Rocky gave each other looks; they hadn't heard anything before either of them could reply though, Rocky's communicator went off.

"What was that?" Penny asked.

"Look why don't you and Kim stay here and I go find out what the noise is," Rocky paused, "both the noises."

Kim nodded as Rocky ducked behind a wall, "I read you Zordon."

"Our sensors are picking up a disturbance near you."

"That must be what Penny heard." Rocky whispered, "I'll check it out. It's Morphin' time, Zeo ranger three blue."

It wasn't long for the others to arrive and fight the monster, only the monster didn't want to fight, in fact, he saved a puppy from getting hit by a car.

The robot tried to convince them that he was good, and they nearly believed him. Until he turned against them and tried to destroy them.

…

Penny accepted the plate of food from Ernie, "It certainly smells good, but are you sure that I will like it."

Aisha, who had just finished up at the animal clinic for the day placed an arm around Penny, "Don't worry, if there's one thing Rocky knows its food, just keep your eyes on your pudding cups."

"I steal one pudding cup when I was six!" Rocky snapped, "and you never let me forget."

The teens laughed as they gathered around their table, suddenly Kim frowned, "Does Lieutenant Stone realize that he's flirting with Bulk and Skull, 'cause that is just weird. I saw those two disguised as statues in the park today."

"That's nothing; Bulk was selling hotdogs outside the youth center with Skull in the cart," Rocky stated.

Just then Lieutenant Stone started to yell as the teens laughed, "I was wondering how long it would take him to figure it out." Trini stated, laughing as Bulk and Skull fled the center with Stone right behind them.

"Man, some things never change," Zack commented, coming up behind the others, smoothie in his hand.

…

Tommy scooped Kim out of her chair and sat her on the grass before plopping down next to her. Kim glanced at Tommy, she had agreed to go to the lake with him to watch the sunset because, so soon after a monster attack, there was no chance of getting called into action, but she sensed that Tommy had alternate motives than just some peaceful alone time.

"Okay Tommy, what do you want?"

"I think we should talk about your dream, Jason told me about it."

Kim snorted, last time she told him anything if he just blabs about it. Tommy looked at the look on his fiancée's face and added, "He's worried about you, Kim, that's all, if I hadn't known that you were with Jason last night, I would have came over. Tell me about the dream."

"I thought Jason told you about it," Kim stated leaning into Tommy's arms.

Tommy wrapped his arms around her, "He did, but he didn't tell me why you had the nightmare."

"I've been having the dream since the accident. I felt like I was trapped in the chair, and everyone who I thought would understand and be there for me, those I thought would care, just left me, even my dad, and now my mom. I guess that was what caused me to have the dream again, Mom's reaction to the engagement. I felt like I was trapped in the chair, and I was drowning due to the emotions I was feeling."

"What kind of feelings?"

"I don't really know I just felt lost and confused, what can I do when I can't use my legs? Now I know that it is a temporary setback. I don't feel so lost about that now. But what about my family? I lost my parents, Tommy; they don't want anything to do with me. My brother is in the air force, he's gone a lot because of that. Do I really want to give up my family?"

Tommy squeezed her shoulders, "You aren't giving up your family, Kim; you're gaining a new one. After the wedding, once things settle down, we'll try reconnecting to your parents; give them some time to calm down. I have a feeling that they don't want to lose you as much as you don't want to lose them. They just need time to accept the changes in your life."

"What if the dream comes true?"

"If you find yourself chained to a chair in a room that is rapidly filling with water with me laughing at you, know that it isn't me," With this Tommy fingered Kim's ring, "This is me, just show me the ring and remind me why I gave it to you in the first place."

Kim giggled, tilting her head up to gaze into his eyes, "Did you know that that was what Jason told me last night."

"Really?" Tommy asked, "Then it must be true."

The two lovebirds giggled, as they snuggled together watching the sunset, unaware of the cog in the bushes leaving back to the moon.

…

 **A/N: There you go. So what did you think? Did you guys get my reference to my other story? Please review.**


	8. Chapter 8: Decades of decisions

**A/N: Here we go chapter eight, special thanks to SpecialK92 and all those who reviewed.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own this.**

 **Hint: Dancing, Decisions, and a love struck Bulk.**

 **…**

Chapter eight: Decades of Decisions.

Tanya and Adam were showing Ernie the music video that they had made together while the others helped set up for the toy drive charity dance. "It's very good; you should perform at the dance tonight." Ernie suggested.

"I don't know," Tanya asked, "Should I?"

Adam quickly agreed as a remote control car raced into the youth center and stopped at Billy's feet, Bulk and Skull following right behind it.

"Are you the Driver of this vehicle?" Bulk demanded.

"It's a remote control car that I was testing before donating it to the toy drive." Billy pointed out, sometimes Bulk and Skull took their jobs a little too serious.

Skull muttered something under his breath that reminded everyone in earshot that the monkey at the zoo had a higher IQ than him, as he wondered off to find some other poor pedestrian to bother.

Bulk however did not follow after his best friend, but hung back, "So where's Kim at?" he asked Jason and Tommy, who were hanging up a banner for the dance.

Jason paused, thinking for a moment, "Physical Therapy, I believe, either that or the mall with Trini. Why?"

"Oh, nothing, I just wanted to ask her something?" Bulk said, blushing slightly.

Adam and Tanya had just arrived after talking out the details of having Tanya perform at the dance. Tanya smiled sympathetically, "I might not be Kim, but maybe I can help."

"There's this girl, name Connie, she's the most beautiful thing I ever saw. I really like her and I wanted help getting her attention. I want to ask her to the dance." Bulk explained, turning a deep red.

Tommy and Jason exchanged looks; they could cross off seeing a love struck Bulk from their bucket lists. Tommy spoke up, "The main thing with any relationship is to remember that there is no I in team. Show that you are interested in what she is interested in."

"How?" Bulk asked.

"Well with Kim it was spotting her while she practiced and supporting her during her competitions." Tommy explained.

Jason nodded, "I have Trini show some of her Kung Fu moves. When my Great-aunt died, she left a large doll collection; I was able to get one of the dolls for Trini's own collection. It didn't cost me a dime and the way her face lit up was priceless."

"I helped direct Tanya's music video, and encourage her to perform." Adam announced.

"Bulk, remember, this is a two way street, I encourage and support Adam's martial arts, just like Kim and Trini supports Tommy and Jason. If the girl doesn't support you the way you support her, then she isn't the one for you."

…

Aisha laughed as Pocco, Kimberly's new service dog, charged through the doors to the mall with his tail wagging, pulling the poor girl who was holding his leash with him. "Its official Kim, he's your dog, he likes the mall."

"Good," Kim stated, "I won't have to train him." she rolled herself forward, "So where should we start?"

Kat smiled; glad to see Kim so enthusiastic about something as simple as going shopping with her friends, "Let's check out the Bridal Store, after all your wedding is only four months away."

"You know you still need to pick a Maid of Honor." Trini stated, "Even though I am sure that you will pick your oldest and truest friend."

Kim shook her head, "I would have, but Tommy already asked Jason to be his best man, and he would look funny in a bride's maid dress."

"I meant me!" Trini exclaimed, shaking her head in amusement at her friend.

Aisha pulled Pocco back from a group of kids with ice cream cones, "Back boy, what about me? She lived with me for several months before going to Florida, doesn't that count for anything?"

Kat shook her head, "Hey, I saved her life!" Kat argued, causing several bystanders to stop and stare at the group.

"Yeah," Trini shot back, "after you put her life in danger in the first place."

Kimberly cleared her throat, "Technically, my life was not in jeopardy when you called the ambulance; all I did was hit my head."

"Well you trusted me with Baka, temporarily, once I got my Zeo crystal she went back to you." Kat pointed out.

"She has known me the longest, it should be me."

"When she was hurt, who did Baka go to, me."

"You all are yellows and I'm a fellow pink."

Kim rolled her eyes at her bickering friends, and then glanced at Pocco, "At least Tanya isn't here to join the argument."

The girls set aside their argument on who should be the Maid of Honor as they entered the bridal shop. An employee quickly hurried over to them, "What can I do for you?"

After introducing themselves and explaining what they wanted, they were taken to the backroom. "So what kind of dress are you looking for?" the lady asked.

"I always like ball gown dresses, like what princesses would wear." Kim explained.

The lady nodded, pulling a few dresses off a rack, "What are your wedding colors?" she asked.

Kim frowned, "Pink and white most likely, we might have a little bit of red and green."

They had been looking at wedding gowns for awhile when Tanya ran in, "Guys, guess what, I'm singing live at the dance tonight!"

"That's great!" Kim exclaimed, reaching up to give her friend a hug.

Just then the worker returned, holding a beautiful white sleeveless ball gown dress with light pink beading on the top and pink decal on the skirt. The friends looked at each other; they had found the perfect dress.

…

Ernie looked around the youth center; everyone was dressed up, even Bulk and Skull were in costumes, dressed up as old police officers like you would see in the movies. He smiled; he always believed that you could tell a lot about a person by what they wear at a costume party. Bulk and Skull really had found themselves something worth doing that they loved to do when they joined the Junior Police Force.

Tanya stepped down from performing and hurried over to where Adam was waiting for her. The two claimed to just be friends but Ernie expects that to change in the next few weeks. Just then a tall man in a suit, which looked really out of place among the costumed teenagers, approached Tanya.

Ernie frowned as the man talked to Tanya and Adam and handed them some sort of business card before accepting the music video tape that they had showed him earlier. As owner of the Youth Center he felt like it was in his best interest to protect the teens that frequent the place.

He approached, "What was that about?" Ernie asked.

"He's a talent scout, he liked my singing and he wanted to see if he couldn't help me get discovered."

"He didn't ask for any payment up front, did he? I've heard about a scammer pretending to be a talent scout."

The others gathered around the table, asking Tanya about what had just happened. She reported what had happened with a twinkle in her eyes.

…

Kim was in the front yard, playing fetch with Pocco the next day when Tanya showed up, looking worried, "I don't know what to do, he's found me an agent and everything, but what about my school work and being a ranger? How did you decide to leave for Florida?"

Kim smiled as she flung the tennis ball as hard as she could. Tanya watched as it soared over her head and the dog gave chase, "Going to the Olympics had been a dream of mine since I started a tumbling class when I was three years old. When Coach Schmidt wanted me on his team, it was a once in a life time opportunity."

By this point in time the dog had deposit the slimy ball into Kim's lap and was now nosing her, trying to get her to throw the ball again. Kim threw it again before adding, "I had a hard time making the decision. My dad's in Seattle and my Mom's in Paris, so I couldn't really talk to them about it, at least not without racking up a large phone bill."

Kim threw the ball again, "I nearly didn't go, I hit my head practicing and ended up in the hospital. I wanted to quit, but Tommy and the others wouldn't let me. It was my dream, and it was up to me to accept or not."

Tanya watched her throw the ball again before asking, "Do you regret going? You know because of the accident?"

Kim's response surprised Tanya, "The Accident has nothing to do with moving to Florida." Kim looked up, and saw the look of confusion on Tanya's face added, "You weren't there when Tommy and I were on the same team. The two of us were constantly being targeted. Even if they didn't know who we were, they knew that I was the weak link to get to the leader and the team." Kim looked Tanya in the eye, "Tommy might be the one who holds the team together, but I was, no, I am, the one who holds him together."

"My relationship with Adam, how did you handle a long distance relationship?"

…

Tanya felt a lot better after talking to Kim about what her response should be. She went to the Youth Center and talked to the agent, telling them that she wanted to wait until she was out of school before pursuing a career in music. They were understanding and offered to wait for when she was ready.

…

 **A/N: I know this one is short, I'm sorry about that. the next one should be longer.**


	9. Chapter 9: Inner Sight

Crippled Crane 9:

Jason was woken by the sound of thunder crashing outside his window, he stretched out about to go back to sleep when the sound of the telephone started to ring in the background. Jason moaned as he rolled out of bed and pulled a t-shirt over his head as he stumbled out to the hall and the telephone.

He quickly grabbed the phone, "Hello Scott residence." He said politely, despite it only being one in the morning.

"What's wrong with Kim? Is she okay?" Tommy's voice came through the receiver.

"It's one in the morning, I am pretty sure that she is asleep."

"Are you sure, because Baka woke Sahen up, and she seemed quite upset and I can't reach Kim."

"Look, Bro, if something was up, Pocco would have woken us up," Jason explained, rolling his eyes, the only reason he even allowed Tommy to date Kim was the fact that he was even more protective than he was.

However, right as he was about to say goodnight and hang up the phone, Pocco came charging up the stairs barking, only to stop when he saw Jason and tear downstairs again. Only to stop halfway, run back up and bark at Jason again. "Scratch that Tommy."

With that, Jason dropped the phone not even bothering to hang it up properly and hurried downstairs after the dog.

"Hello, hello?" Tommy's voice came over the phone as it dangled from its cord, "Jason are you still there? I am going to give you 'til the count of ten to answer me, and if you still don't answer me I'm coming over. One… two… three… That's it, I'm coming over, be there in five." With that, the line went died.

…

Jason hurried downstairs and nearly crashed into the wall as he tried to make the turn into Kim's room. Kim was asleep in her bed at first glance. However, at second glance, Jason noticed how pale Kim was and that her cheeks were flushed with fever. He quickly ran out of the room, just as the doorbell rung.

Jason tore open the door with a quick, "She has a fever," before tearing upstairs to get his parents. He hadn't even blinked to find Tommy at his doorstep, barefoot and completely dry despite the pouring rain, fifteen seconds after he had talked to him on the phone.

He didn't even bother knocking on his parents' door; he just flung it open and woke them up.

"What." Mr. Scott asked groggily.

"Kim's sick," Jason announced gasping for breath.

Those two words started a whirlwind of activity, both of his parents jumped up and his mother grabbed her robe from the foot of the bed. Jason quickly left the room to avoid being trampled. Out in the hallway, he discovered that he had forgotten to hang up the phone, which he quickly did.

As his parents rushed downstairs, he called out, "Oh yeah, Tommy's here!"

…

Mr. Scott was glad that Jason had gave him the heads up so that he didn't attack when he saw the shadowy figure of a man in his daughter's room, "How is she, Tommy?" He asked, coming up behind him with his wife next to him.

"Burning up; I think it's the flu bug that is going around school." Tommy explained, just as Kim moaned and her eyelids started to flicker, "Easy there Beautiful," Tommy murmured softly to her. Mr. Scott shook his head, to think this gentle person who was nursing his love of his life back to health was the leader of the mighty Power Rangers.

"Handsome." She murmured, "Is that really you?"

"Yes, Beautiful, Baka sent for me." He gently stated, brushing back a strand of her hair, "Can you tell me where it hurts?"

"My throat's all scratchy and my head hurts." Kim croaked out.

Tommy nodded his head, it sounded like the bug that was making its way through the student body of Angel Grove High.

Mrs. Scott leaned over, a thermometer in her hand, "Let's check your temperature, sweetie." Kim opened her mouth and allowed her surrogate mother to check her temperature.

As it beeped, she pulled it out and tutted, "a hundred point one."

…

Tommy refused to go home, or even leave Kim's line of sight for the rest of the night. However as the storm broke up in the early morning, his communicator went off, "I have to go." He announced looking conflicted, "Contact me via communicator if she gets worst."

Jason nodded at his best friend, "Don't worry, I'll take care of Kim. You just need to worry about protecting the world."

Tommy nodded before answering the communicator, Adam's voice crackled through it, "I need your help in the woods outside Angel Grove."

Tommy took one last look at Kim, who was peacefully sleeping, "I'm on my way."

As he was about to teleport, Jason called out, "You might want to put some clothes on first, don't need the leader of the Power Rangers' getting sick too."

Tommy opened his mouth to argue, but Kim stirred at that moment and announced sleepily, "Jason's right you know, he was your leader longer than you were his."

Tommy rolled his eyes as if he had planned to rush into battle with only a pair of pajama shorts on.

…

Half an hour later Tommy was going to Kill Adam. No questions asked he was going to murder him. Apparently signing up for a ninja contest last minute constituted as an emergency. He couldn't believe Adam would do something so much like Zack. Then again Adam was black as well, did that have something to do with it.

Even though he wasn't impressed with what Adam had done he agreed to help out, after all, helping Adam train for the competition sounded a whole lot better and Jason and Kim pretty much kicked him out of the room. Kim didn't want to risk him getting sick also.

…

Kim was lying in bed, her eyes more closed than opened when it first happened. One moment she was kind of staring at the ceiling in her bedroom and the next moment she was flying over the forest, watching Adam being attacked by ninjas.

She bolted straight up, she was almost certain that she hadn't dozed off, or had she? No she couldn't have she was well aware of her surroundings yet she could still see the attack fresh in the back of her mind as if she was there but not there at the same time. Had she just discovered a new power?

"Hi, Kim, what's up?" Jake asked, his little face appearing just inches from hers.

"Nothing," Kim assured him, "Just a dream, can you hand me my watch there on my nightstand and fetch Jason for me. I need to talk to him."

Jake nodded, handing her communicator to her before heading out the door. After making sure that Jake was out of earshot she placed the communicator up to her lips.

"Contact Adam," she ordered it, knowing that it would understand her orders and do just that. Soon Adam's confused voice filtered through it, "You must be delirious Kim, you usually contact Tommy, not me, not that I'm complaining it's just Tanya might get jealous."

"There's a ninja sneaking up behind you," Kim said, still aware of what was going on around Adam even though the coldness of the metal bed frame against her back told her that she was wide awake.

Adam turned around to find himself staring nose to nose with a ninja. He quickly decked it and raised his communicator to his mouth, "how did you know that?"

 _"I don't know how I know that all I know is that I can see everything as if I'm flying overhead."_

"A new power or is it an undiscovered ninjetti power?"

 _"I don't know, I'm going to have to play around with it, figure out how it works and how I triggered it."_ With that Kim hung up the communicator and Adam turned to the ninja that had snuck up on him.

"Honestly Tommy, what happened to being an honorable fighter? Sneaking up on me when I was on the communicator."

The ninja pulled his hood off, revealing the leader of the power rangers, "You were on the communicator with my fiancée!"

"She contacted me to find out why I was being attacked by ninjas," Adam stated, gesturing to the other ninjas who had taken their hoods off revealing the other rangers.

"How did she know you were being attacked?" Kat asked, sending Tommy a weird look.

Tommy shrugged, just because he was Kim's fiancé didn't mean that he knew how she did every little thing. It could have been a new power couple power, or it could have been an undiscovered Ninjetti Power. Wasn't it funny that now that their Ninjetti powers were dormant they keep on discovering new abilities? Granted those new abilities had come in handy.

Just then something shiny caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He went over and picked up a little round disk from off the ground, "Somebody lost a medallion of some sort."

Kat took it from him and studied it closely, "I think it might have Machine Empire origins, it's shaped like a gear. I say we take it to the command center and have Billy and Trini look at it."

…

Kim was for the most part just lying in bed, her eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. Jason was sitting next to her asking her questions.

"I'm seeing through Baka's eyes." Kim explained, "I just talked to her about it. Therefore this must be a Ninjetti power." Just then she trailed off, "Something's not right, Baka go lower."

Jason watched as his sister's brow furrowed in concentration as she muttered, "There's one and there's another. There's a whole armada out here. That doesn't make sense, though; the Rangers were there twenty minutes ago."

Kim glanced over at her brother, looking for instructions.

"What's wrong?"

"The Machine Empire is building an Armada out in the forest, right next to where the others were at this morning. There seems to be a cloaking field around them. What should I do?"

Jason was silent for a moment before ordering, "Scout the area and find out how many ships, monsters, and cogs, and contact Tommy right away."

…

Billy checked his scans, "It appears to be some sort of cloaking device. There are probably more where this came from. If I can just disrupt the signal, then we can find out what they are hiding."

Tommy wasn't listening; in fact, he had a hand on his head and looked like he was thinking very hard about something. It's an Armada. There's at least one monster and several cogs. Kim's still trying to get a head count on them." Tommy opened his eyes, "They've captured Bulk and Skull."

"Why am I not surprised?" Rocky asked, rolling his eyes, those two idiots always seem to get into the middle of their battles.

…

Tommy stifled a yawn so that his teammates couldn't see it. He was exhausted. He had been up since one that morning and had been moving constantly ever since. First Adam needed his help training for the competition, which, Tommy had to admit he was nailing. Then there was the Admiral and the Armada. And of course, there was rescuing Bulk and Skull again. Those two really need to learn to avoid mysterious happenings around Angel Grove and save them for the rangers.

Now there was one last thing he had to do before he could call it a day. Zordon wanted to make sure that all of the cloaking devices were properly disposed of before they caused any more trouble and Kim had noticed Shawn having one at the beach earlier that day, and of course he was here at the competition.

He slipped away to morph and then entered back into the area where the competition was being held from a different direction. Everyone stopped and stared as he entered the ring. Adam gave him a quizzical look, confused at what he was doing.

The judge stepped forward, "Yes, red ranger what can I do for you?"

Tommy paused, pretending to scan the crowds, "I'm looking for someone," And then his eyes landed on Shawn who was standing next to Adam waiting to begin. He pointed to Shawn and said, "I need to talk to you."

Shawn's eyes grew wide as he pointed to himself, "Me?"

"Yes you, I understand you found something in the woods. Something from the Machine Empire." Tommy held out his hand and showed Shawn one of the cloaking devices. "It would look something like this. I need it, this technology can be very dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. I don't want to think about what Rita and Lord Zedd would do to get their hands on something like this."

Shawn sheepishly pulled the device out of his pocket and handed it over. Tommy nodded, "If you ever come across something like this again, please take it to Ernie at the Youth Center, he is our ally and will get the devices to us. We don't want you getting hurt because you are messing with stuff you shouldn't."

…

 **A/N: there you go, a new chapter of crippled crane.**


	10. Chapter 10: A Golden Friend

**A/N: Hint: Make new friends but keep the old.**

…

Chapter Ten: A golden friend

Billy barely acknowledged the beam of pink light that announced the arrival of Kim into the Power Chamber until she asked, "What's going on, Tommy seems worried?"

Billy snorted, "He should be, we have two possible monster sightings on opposite sides of town."

Kim frowned as she rolled herself over to be next to Billy, "Is it wise to split the Rangers up like that? I mean we are a 'United we Stand, Divided We Fall,' kind of organization."

Zordon spoke up then, "We don't have much choice, there is a chance that there are two monsters, we can't risk leaving one free to terrorize the town."

Kim frowned, thinking for a moment, "Why don't we have some of the others helping them out? They might not have their powers but sometimes numbers can be more important than strength."

…

Tommy did not like this one bit. He didn't like splitting up at all; add in the fact that his hair was standing up on the back of his neck and he knew something wasn't right. He closed his eyes focusing on the falcon inside him, _Sahen,_ he called out, _check up ahead, tell me if you see anything._

No sooner had he sent Sahen up ahead did he heard a noise behind them. He whirled around; dropping into a fighting stance at the same time Adam did beside him. Tommy lowered his stance as Zack waltzed into view.

"Kim thought you could use some help." He explained, "We have two full teams in Angel Grove at the moment, so we might as well use both of them."

Tommy nodded his thanks as Cogs started to attack, causing them to have to fight. Tommy felt his power fluctuate steadily. He frowned it was a good thing Zack and Aisha had showed up when they did. Fighting without powers was safer than fighting with unstable powers.

…

Jason watched as Tanya, Kat, and Rocky's powers fluctuated before him, making it hard for them to considerate on fighting the cogs. Maybe Kim had foresight; they were in no current state to be effective fighters.

Just then he noticed a ranger dressed in black and gold appear, fighting off the monster. Jason watched the strange power ranger, noting the fact that he seemed to be favoring his left leg. Whoever the person was he was hurt.

As the ranger hurried away Jason followed, keeping the strange man in sight as he went deeper into the woods.

As the ranger suit started to flicker, Jason ducked behind a tree, not wanting whoever was behind the helmet to see him and think he was working for the Machine Empire. Jason must have blinked, he had to have; there was no way one person could have turned into three so quickly. Had the others been waiting for the ranger to be along to ambush him? Then again why weren't they attacking, and why did they all look so much alike.

Jason shifted his weight to see if he couldn't get a better look and winced as he stepped on a twig, causing it to snap. He shook his head in disbelief as he quickly made himself known, there wasn't much more he could do, and rangers don't run.

"I'm Jason; I am a leader of the power rangers here in Angel Grove." Jason explained as he stepped out from behind the tree, "I wanted to find out who the ranger was that helped us back there. Which one of you was it?"

"We are Trey of Trifolia, we helped the Rangers." One of the Treys explained. Another one asked, "If you are a Power Ranger, why didn't you morph with the others?"

Jason shrugged, "I don't have powers at the moment, at least I don't have active powers, from the way Zordon was talking the Power Couple could possibly restore them, but we're saving that as a last resort."

Trey snorted, "The Power Couple is just a fairy tale that teaches kids to believe in happily ever after."

"But I know the power couple, I've seen them at work, heck, it's my sister and her fiancé," Jason protested, "Zordon said they were the power couple."

The three Treys eyes went round; they knew of Zordon, anyone who was a power ranger in the entire universe knew of Zordon. Zordon didn't lie or make mistakes. If Zordon said that the power couple is real and that it is this man's sister and her fiancé, then it must be true.

The Treys shook their heads, "You are a Power Ranger?"

"Original Red," Jason stated, holding his hand out for a handshake.

Trey looked at him with a curious look, "Do you think you can help me with something."

Jason nodded his head, "A Power Ranger is always ready to help in any way they can. What can I help you with?"

"I need to get home to my planet, yet I am being hunted and can't maintain my morph."

"How can I help?" Jason asked.

Trey leaned forward, "I need you to take my place as the gold ranger. At least until I am able to merge into a single person."

"Sure, no problem, what do I need to do. Do we need to go to the Power Chamber? Do we need Zordon's help?"

"No, I do not believe so, I believe that we can accomplish this task here, all you have to do is grab my golden staff."

Jason reached out and grabbed the staff, feeling the strength and power rushed through him. He had to admit at least to himself that he had missed this feeling of incredible strength. He smiled as he looked down at his new suit, "I'm going to need a new wardrobe." He announced.

…

Kim was sitting at the table helping Jake with his homework when Jason returned home, "I told Mom and Dad you were helping Tommy with something." She announced before correcting on of Jake's math problems.

"Thanks, sorry it took so long; I got caught in a monster attack," Jason explained, trying to hide the bags of clothes he had bought.

"The monster attack was two hours ago, and was nowhere near the mall." Kim pointed out as Pocco demanded loving, "You went shopping without me, didn't you?"

Jason nodded and was about to move past her when Kim grabbed one of the bags, yanked it out of his arm and opened it.

"Why did you buy a bunch of black clothes?" Kim asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Just changing up my wardrobe, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new," Jason announced, before yanking the bag out of Kim's arm and hurrying upstairs.

Kim looked at Jake, "Your brother is hiding something, and I'm going to figure out what."

Upstairs in his room Jason started putting his new clothes away, he hadn't wanted to lie to Kim, but Trey had been insistent that nobody knew his identity, not even Zordon. He shook his head, he hoped that Trey was right about this and it wasn't going to blow up in his face.

…

 **A/N: Jason is the Gold Ranger, yeah, and he isn't telling anybody, hmm… that isn't going to end up well. Please make my day and review.**


	11. Chapter 11: A Big Reaction

**A/N: Hint: What can go wrong in the desert?**

…

Chapter 11: A Small Problem, a Big Reaction

"Come on Jas," Kim yelled, sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'll be there in a moment," Jason called down the stairs.

"Hurry up! We were supposed to meet the others ten minutes ago!" Kim shouted up the stairs.

"Then I guess we'll get there at the same time as Tommy!" Jason called out, followed by the sound of a door opening and closing.

Soon Jason appeared on the top step, wearing a black t-shirt. He hurried down the stairs, "Okay let's go."

"When are you going to tell me what's up with all the black clothes? I get that you want a change in wardrobe, but what is up with the change in color. I know Grandma isn't doing well, but aren't you supposed to wait until after her death to start mourning?"

Jason rolled his eyes at Kim; she was smart; it would be hard to hide his new secret identity for long from her, especially since they lived in the same house, "Do you want to spend all day here, asking me questions I already answered…"

"Those answers were lies," Kim interrupted, "My mother was right, you are a terrible liar."

"Fine," Jason snapped, storming off, ignoring Pocco's yelp of pain as he accidentally stepped on his tail, "But don't think I'll take you to see your fiancé."

Kim frowned, Jason was never this moody, which meant only one thing; he was under an evil spell.

 _Tommy, Tommy can you hear me._ She sent silently if he was under a spell, she didn't want to alert him to the fact that she was suspicious of it.

 _Beautiful, what's wrong._

 _Jason's acting weird. Dressing in black, not wearing red, snapping at me and lying. I think he might be under some sort of evil spell or mind control._

 _Keep an eye on him; let either Zordon or me know if something doesn't seem right._

 _Thanks, Handsome will do._

…

The Youth Center was busy, which was common for a Saturday morning. Kim rolled over to where Tommy and the others were at as Jason snagged Trini away for a date. Kim smiled as Kat and Raymond, a friend of Tanya and Adam, arrived, carrying a tank between them.

"Since we all are free today, I figured we might do our ecosystem project today," Kat suggested.

Tommy nodded when it came to group projects where someone in the group was not a power ranger getting the project done early before monster attacks got in the way was the best way to go, "Great idea, we can go to the desert and collect stuff for it."

Kim frowned, "Sand's hard for me to get around on." She admitted, causing the other members of the group to frown, Kim didn't let her wheelchair get in her way much, but there were some things she just couldn't do.

"You can stay here, Beautiful and paint a background for the terrarium," Tommy suggested, before adding silently _and have Baka keep an eye on Jason, we still don't know if he is under a spell or not._

"Just be careful," Kim urged, giving Tommy a quick kiss.

"What could go wrong in the desert?" Kat asked as she grabbed her backpack.

"That's what they say at the beginning of every horror movie I have ever watched," Zack called out from across the room, "Right before somebody dies."

"Not helping Zack!" Kim called out back at her friend.

"Glad to be of service." He said with his customary smirk.

After that, the Youth Center fell back into its usual Saturday groove. That was at least for ten minutes until Kim let out an earsplitting scream and Pocco started to bark as Kim toppled out of her wheelchair.

Aisha was the first one by her side, trying to make sense as her friend muttered something about Tommy being in trouble. _Nita tell Balbir to tell Rocky to check in on Tommy._ She ordered.

Ernie quickly hurried over to them, "What's going on? Is Kim okay?"

"The question isn't, is Kim's okay; it's what happened to Tommy?" Aisha hissed at their ally.

"What happened to Tommy?" Ernie hissed, wondering what had happened to the brave leader of the power ranger and what did that have to do with Kim's strange attack.

"All I know is that Kim's connection to Tommy was interrupted," Aisha explained, "and that's not good, those two don't block each other out ever. Block them from hearing secrets yes, but completely like this, never."

…the desert…

To say that Tommy and Kat were having a bad day was an understatement. A bad day was having the car break down or getting lost. It was quite worst when you got shrunk down and put into your terrarium by your archenemies.

"We're too small; we can't get through to Zordon," Kat announced after trying to use her communicator.

"I can't get in touch with both Kim and Sahen," Tommy added, sounding worried, he had always remained in touch with Kim ever since they had discovered the telepathic link between them. She was probably worried about him.

"Not that I'm saying that's good, but if you can't reach Kim, Kim can't reach you, she'll get the others and they'll save us," Kat paused, "Right?"

Tommy, however, wasn't really listening, sometimes waiting for help wasn't an option and he had a feeling like this was one of those times, "The likely hood of them finding us is slim, and they wouldn't know to look for miniature versions of us."

Kat frowned, turning around in a circle, inspecting their prison for any means out, "Look, there's a rip in the mesh, we can get out that way."

Both of the Rangers started to climb the rocks in an attempt to escape only to be stopped by Prince Sprocket and his new pet tarantula. "What do we do now; I don't want to be spider lunch!" Kat cried out.

Tommy frowned, "The Power Couple power is based on love, which I hardly doubt can be shrunk. I'll see if I can't transform into my power couple suit. With it, I should have the needed edge to escape."

Kat nodded, dodging the tarantula, "try it!" she called out.

Tommy closed his eyes for a minute, "Pink, Green, and White unite!"

…At the command center…

"It's Tommy's truck all right," Billy stated, looking at what looked like a toy car through a magnifying glass.

Rocky nodded, after getting the distress call from Balbir he had tried to contact Tommy and Kat but had gotten no response. With that, he had contacted Zordon and the others and had searched the desert, where they found Tommy's truck shrunk down to the size of a hot wheel.

"This is bad," Tanya stated, "Kim's in the hospital after having some sort of Seizure and we have no idea where Tommy and Kat are."

"Aisha is with Kim at the moment and Zack went to find Jason and Trini and fill them in on the situation." Adam added, "That leaves us to search for Tommy and Kat."

…The Park with Jason and Trini…

Jason and Trini were enjoying a nice quiet picnic lunch in the park when Zack came plowing past them. Jason watched in amusement as Zack struggled to stop and turn around at the same time.

"What's wrong Zack, you look like Goldar's chasing you," Trini asked.

"Kim's in the Hospital, she had some sort of seizure or something and Tommy and Kat are missing!" Zack huffed out, staring wildly at his two friends.

Jason stood up, it sounded like the gold ranger was needed, "Trini why don't you go check on Kim."

"What about you?" Trini asked.

"I have something I need to do first; I'll meet up with you later."

…The Desert with Tommy and Kat…

Tommy smiled as he bent down and scooped up the still miniature Kat. He had been surprised when he had transformed from Zeo Ranger Five to Power Couple White that the effects of the shrink rays wore off and he had started to grow large in the terrarium. He had luckily been able to scramble out before he accidentally squashed Kat or the spider.

"I wonder what kind of spells and stuff switching to Power Couple mode will cancel out." Tommy mused as he sat Kat on his shoulder.

At that moment Jason showed up as the gold ranger, he blinked to see that Tommy was full size and in his white suit. "Sorry I'm late, can I join in the party?" he asked, teasingly.

…

Jason looked around, Tanya, Adam, and Rocky had showed up and it looked like they had everything under control. Kat was still Mini, but he knew that Billy would find a solution to that back at the command center.

"Looks like everything is taken care of here, I better head off back to town and take care of business there." He said to himself, before heading back to the hospital to check on Kim.

…

Kim, who had been released from the hospital after all of her tests had come back normal, Kat, finally returned to normal size, and Tommy were adding the last touches to the terrarium when Raymond showed up.

"Dude, where were you? I had to walk back to town." He asked Tommy and Kat.

"I'm sorry man," Tommy said, "Aisha paged me when Kim had some sort of seizure, I honestly thought we could get back in time to pick you up, but time got away from us I guess."

"That's okay, I needed the exercise anyway," Raymond stated, "I'm glad to see you're feeling better Kim."

"Thanks," Kim said as Raymond pulled a container out of his backpack. Kat and Tommy exchanged looks, it was a tarantula.

"I figured it would be the perfect thing to finish off the terrarium," Raymond stated before giving them an odd look for the panic look they gave each other at the sight of the big spider.

…

 **A/N: Make me smile and review.**


	12. Chapter 12: A Day at the Beach

**Hint: There's no such thing as a relaxing day at the beach**

Crippled Crane Chapter 12: A Day at the Beach

"Hey guys, do you think the gold ranger knows how to surf?" Rocky greeted the group of rangers as they arrived at the beach for the competition.

Kim felt Jason stiffen underneath her at the mention of the gold ranger, okay that was odd, "No, I think he's more into scuba diving." He responded.

Kim laughed from her position on Jason's back, "In other words, Jason can't surf and doesn't want the gold ranger to be cooler than he is."

Jason pretended to drop Kim; however, Tommy rescued her before she could be thrown unto the sand, "Careful," Tommy said, only half-jokingly, "That's my future bride you're tossing around."

"Just think about it, he could be right here on the beach and we won't even know it," Kat added looking around.

Aisha and Trini nodded their heads, although Trini did pipe up, "We aren't even sure that he is a guy, for all we know it could be a girl using a voice disguiser."

Kim looked up from where she had been deposited onto the sand, "Don't think too hard about it Trini, I already figured out who the gold ranger is, it's quite simple, if you think about it, you can figure it out as well."

"How did you figure that out?" Jason demanded, he sounded a little panicked.

Kim smirked, she had been right, she had figured out Jason's little secret.

Just then David arrived, dressed, like Kat and Tommy, for the surfing competition.

"Hey Man," Tommy greeted his older brother, "I didn't know you surf."

David smiled, "There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

Tommy sighed, plopping down next to Kim, "Let's be honest, there's a lot I don't know about our family period."

"I understand, I know that Sam is our Mother's father, but that's it, he won't tell me anything more, besides the fact that we are brothers."

Kim leaned over, "Maybe you can use what you know to find out more on the internet."

Tommy smiled lovingly at his fiancée, "That's a grand idea."

"Get a room you two," Rocky insisted, which got him a slap on the back of the head from Aisha.

Kat stood up, "Well my heat's about to start," she looked at Tommy and Kim, Rocky and Aisha, and Jason and Trini, "I wish Billy could have come." She sighed. Ever since Kim had returned from Paris Kat had been spending a lot of time with the former blue ranger.

"You know how Billy is; when he is working on a new project nothing can distract him." Trini reminded everyone, and then she turned to Kat, "Don't worry, we are all here to cheer you on."

Kat smiled, "Thanks, guys, you are the best friends a girl could ever want."

…Youth Center…

Zack watched as Adam and Tanya sparred. He smiled as Adam pinned Tanya's arm down. "That was good," Adam told her.

"Yeah, very impressive, but the others are already at the beach, and the contest started," Zack complained, he didn't like the idea that the others were having fun at the beach without him.

"Okay Zack," Adam stated, rolling his eyes, sometimes it was hard to believe that he and Zack shared the same color.

"Can I please get a drink first," Tanya asked.

Adam smiled, "Sure no problem."

The three friends went to the counter were Ernie was working, "Two waters please."

"No Problem," Ernie said, turning to take care of the order.

"I don't know my style is just not right," Tanya said, shaking her head.

Zack slid into a chair next to them, "Don't worry about it Tanya, you hadn't been trained in martial arts growing up, you just need to find what works for you."

"But I've been a Power Ranger since the beginning of the school year, and I still haven't figured it out."

Ernie started filling a cup, "Don't worry about it, I remember when your friends first were chosen, Kim and Billy were worried about their fighting style."

Zack nodded, "It took Billy over a year to figure out his own fighting style, and both Jason and Tommy had to help him."

Ernie glanced at the green sludge that was filling the glass, "What in the world?"

"When was the last time you cleaned out that hose?" Adam asked.

"I better rinse this out, this is really weird," Ernie stated, as he turned on the faucet, only for more green sludge to come out.

Ernie placed the cup of green sludge in front of the rangers, "I'll check the pipes in the back, but I think you might want to check out the sludge, just in case the Machine Empire is behind this."

Adam picked up the glass and sniffed it, "I know this smell."

Zack grabbed the glass and sniff, "man that stuff stinks." He stated.

"Let me see," Tanya stated, taking the glass from Zack and sniffing it, "It smells like Cog oil."

…Detective Stone's office…

"We got a big case today." Detective Stone stated, holding up a treasure map, "This map will lead us to the lost Treasure of Brown Beard the pirate."

"All right, we get to dig up treasure." Skull stated, grabbing the map, "Hey, what do you think the x is for."

"That's the treasure you nit-wit." Bulk growled, rolling his eyes at his friend.

"Why would someone bury an x?" Skull asked.

…The beach…

The competition was coming to a close and both Tommy and David had been eliminated. However, Kat was currently in second place and could take the gold if she could catch one last wave.

Tommy cheered his teammate on from where he was sitting next to Kim, at least until he heard Haracha cry out, _Clear the Beach, Cogs have polluted the ocean with toxic sludge, it is headed your way._

Tommy shook his head, glancing around to see that Aisha, Rocky, and Kim were busy shaking their heads clear too.

"What just happened?" David asked, "The four of you just blanked out suddenly."

"A warning from Adam," Tommy explained standing up quickly, he had switched from ordinary teenager to leader of the Power Rangers faster than it took to switch on a light.

"Do the Power Rangers need to show up?" David asked, almost eagerly, he loved watching his younger brother in action.

"Not yet," Tommy said, glancing around, "There are too many people, we need to clear the beach first."

"I got this." Rocky stated, hurrying off towards the judge's table, "Get Kat out of the water!"

Tommy and David quickly pulled their suits on, heading towards the water. As they dove in Aisha, Trini, and Jason helped get Kim into the car as Rocky pointed out the green slime to the judges.

"I might not be an expert on ocean life, but I am an expert on life here in Angel Grove, and it's a good idea if something doesn't seem right, get away fast so that the rangers can do their job."

The judges looked at the green slime before ordering everyone off the beach.

Soon after Tommy, Kat, and David climbed back unto the beach, Rocky headed over, "It's the Leaky Faucet monster again, Billy says if we defeat it the water would be returned to normal."

"David, do you think you will be okay by yourself?" Tommy turned to his older brother, only to discover that his brother was nowhere to be found.

Kat looked around, "He'll be okay, let's go."

…

Kim was at the library, at the computer when David came up behind her, "Hey, I figured I'll find you here."

"Yeah, I'm working on wedding stuff. Can you believe that it's just three and a half months away?"

"No? Is it really that close?" David asked pulling up a chair; Kim had a list of names and addresses that needed to be invited to the wedding.

"Yeah, I need to double check with Tommy if there's any on his side that I forgot."

David looked over the list; a lot of the names on it were ones that he had heard Tommy and his friends mention, if not he recognized their last names as relatives of a member of the power rangers. There was a handful that he recognized as relatives Tommy mentioned, but he didn't see any with the last name Hart, "Aren't you inviting anybody from your family?"

"My mom disowned me and my dad refuses to have anything to do with me."

David gasped, "Why's that?"

"The accident," Kim stated gesturing to her wheelchair, then she held up her hand, the engagement ring glittering in the artificial light of the library, "the engagement and my brother is employed overseas at the moment and he can't make it. Hopefully, my Uncle Steve can make it. He'll probably end up walking me down the aisle."

David nodded, "Does Tommy know about this little plan of yours," David asked, changing the topic artfully.

Kim shook her head, "I'm trying my best to keep it a secret, but that's hard when you're constantly in each other's head."

David burst out laughing, "Come on, it's not that bad," he looked at her, who was giving him the "I'm being deadly serious look."

"The Gold Ranger just showed up at the water maintenance plant to help the others out and Tommy's trying to figure out who he is." She paused for a moment, "He's way off, thinks he might be you. It's actually Jason; he's been acting weird enough."

"You know what Tommy's thinking?" David asked.

"I could if I wanted to, but then Tommy will know what we're up to," Kim said, wriggling her eyebrows at her future brother-in-law.

"You are something, aren't you?" David asked.

…

Tommy smiled as he looked around the beach, Kat hadn't won, but they had defeated the Leaky Faucet and that was worth celebrating. He looked around, "Has anyone seen David?" he asked.

Just then David appeared, Kim on his back, "Sorry I was helping Kim with something important."

Tommy smiled happily as he turned to his fiancée, "really, what?"

Kim smiled as she said; "Now it wouldn't be a surprise if I tell you, now would it?"

Just then Bulk and Skull arrived and started to dig randomly in the sand, throwing sand over the large group of rangers.

"Yuck, I have sand in my hair," Kim complained.

"Why are you digging a hole in the sand?" Tommy asked.

"We're looking for buried treasure," Skull explained, showering him with another shovel of sand.

"Take a look at this map." Bulk added, handing over the treasure map for Tommy to look at.

Tommy looked at it briefly before saying, "You do realize that this map is of the Caribbean, Right?"

Bulk and Skull stared at him in shock and disbelief.

"You nit-wit, you read the map wrong," Bulk shouted, smacking Skull over the head.

"I read the map wrong, you're the one that was in charge of the map."

David shook his head, "There are two things I learned from Angel Grove, always expect a monster attack and always expect Bulk and Skull to make you laugh."

…

 **A/N: There you go, ten points to anyone who can tell me what power ranger season the map Bulk and Skull have is from.**


	13. Chapter 13: Secrets are Spilled

**A/N: Answer from where the map was from Operation Overdrive, Congratulation dguice for guessing correctly.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own power rangers, I wish I did though**

 **Hint: Sleep is a Wonderful Thing**

Crippled Crane 13: Secrets are Spilled

Kim was leaning happily against Tommy's chest as Pocco laid close by. They had been discussing their upcoming wedding but Tommy had dozed off, something that Kim found both understandable and adorable. Tommy was exhausted. The Machine Empire was bombarding them with Cogs for the past couple of weeks.

She almost had her eyes closed, listening to the soft sound of Tommy snoring slightly beside her, then Tommy's communicator went off. Almost immediately Tommy was awake in on his feet talking to Zordon, Kim smiled, this was the man she had fallen in love with, willing to fight to his last breath no matter what.

"I have to go," Tommy said apologetic, "Will you be okay by yourself?"

Kim nodded, "Go the world needs you, I'll call Jason or someone to give me a hand."

Tommy nodded, yawned and morphed out.

…

Kim watched as Jason quite literally fell asleep in his dinner, Tommy wasn't the only one who was feeling the strain of the past two weeks. She looked at his mother, "You're taking a picture right?"

Mrs. Scott snorted, "Kim, why do you want blackmail?"

Kim shrugged, "To get an honest answer out of him. He's the new gold ranger, I can tell, but he won't even tell Zordon. He has to confess or I show the whole school how he faced planted into his mashed potatoes."

Mrs. Scott placed a hand on her shoulder, "Love, I think you are spending to much time with Zack."

It was then that Jason's communicator went off, causing him to jerk awake. "This is Jason," he muttered into it.

"Just saving you from humiliation at school tomorrow, Kim was looking for a camera," Tommy stated over the communicator, "By the way you have something on your face," you could almost hear the smirk as Tommy spoke.

Jason snatched the towel out of Kim's hand, "Don't even think about it." He snapped.

Kim shrugged, "If it makes you feel better I think you look good in mash potato."

Jason shot her a glare before standing up, "I'm going to shower and then I'm going to bed."

Kim grinned mischievously at him as he walked by, "Don't fall asleep in the shower."

…

Jason was sure that someone kept moving his alarm clock ahead a little bit each day, he seemed to be getting less sleep every night. He rolled over onto his stomach as he switched his alarm off, to think he used to be a morning person.

"Come on Jason," Jake called, pounding on his door, "Kim's already ready, and you know that's saying something!"

"Tell Mom I don't feel good!" Jason called back to his younger brother, playing the sick card wasn't something he wanted to do, and something Zordon wouldn't approve of, but what choice did he have.

…

Billy yawned as he met Kim and David at the library, "Why are we meeting so often?" he asked.

David shrugged, "The best time for us to meet without Tommy figuring out what is going on is when he is busy, and he's been busy a lot lately."

Kim nodded, "So did you check out the lead we found last time with your grandfather?"

David nodded, "He says it's true that he had a twin sister, but he doesn't know if she is still alive or not."

Billy smiled, "So you want me to use my technical knowledge to track her down, Right?"

Kim nodded, "He wants to learn more about his family and this is the perfect way to do it."

…

Jason had pretty much slept through the day, he felt a lot better now, though now he had to get past Kim who was watching a gymnastics competition on the TV in the living room.

As soon as he appeared Kim commented, "Tommy and the others are fighting a monster that is putting everyone to sleep, having a hard time of it too."

Jason groaned, Kim wouldn't have told him that without promptings unless she already knew what was going on, "How long have you known that I was the gold ranger?"

"I've suspected since the very beginning, but at the beach, yeah, that's when I figured it out. Now the question is when do we tell the others it's been you this whole time?"

"Ha Ha Ha," Jason stated, "I'll tell everyone I'm the Gold Ranger when I am ready to tell them I'm the gold Ranger."

…

Tommy stared around him, stifling a yawn behind his helmet, that monster was nasty. It was so hard fighting a monster that was trying to put you to sleep when all you want to do is curl up and sleep. Luckily the gold ranger showed up when he did.

Tommy froze, was the gold ranger still there? Or had he already left? He wasn't the kind to stick around, but he usually made sure that they had everything under control before leaving. He glanced around until he noticed the gold ranger laying prone on the ground not too far from where he was.

"Zordon the Gold Ranger is hurt, what should we do?" he asked.

"Alpha will Teleport him into the Command Center," Zordon stated calmly.

…

The first thing Jason realized when he came too was that he was still in his uniform, which was a good thing; he didn't want Tommy to learn who he was just yet. The next thing he realized was that he could hear Alpha saying, "Ay-Yi-Yi, you shouldn't try to move," as the little robot gently nudged him back down.

Jason nudged him away, "I'm fine Alpha, honest," he sat up, nodded to Zordon, "Thanks, Zordon, but I better get going." He got up and headed to the door when Kim appeared in the doorway, sitting in her chair, with her arms crossed in front of her.

"Either remove your helmet now and reveal who you are, or I show Trini that baby picture you've been hiding from her," Kim ordered, "I don't know why you haven't told anyone that you are the Gold Ranger, but when it gets you injured it isn't worth the secret."

Jason glared at her before removing his helmet, "Now hand over the picture."

Kim shot him a guilty look, "I don't have it, I gave it to Trini," she said meekly.

"You What!" Jason screamed.

"She thought it was adorable." Kim offered.

Jason wasn't impressed.

…

"So let me get this straight," Tommy said again the next day at the command chamber, "Jason has been the Gold Ranger since the beginning?"

"Well, yes and no, Trey of Trifolia was the gold ranger, but he was hurt bad enough that he couldn't use the power anymore so he asked me to take over," Jason explained.

Kat frowned, "If Jason was the Gold Ranger, where did David disappear too on the Beach, and why was Billy always disappearing right before the Gold Ranger Showed up." **(A/N You know the Questions that the Show never answered)**

Kim cleared her throat, "They were helping me learn more about Tommy's biological family."

Tommy leaped up, an eager look in his eyes, "What did you learn?"

"Your parents were murdered, that's why your grandfather doesn't like talking about it. You also have a sister, a twin sister. Billy's helping us locate her." Kim said softly.

Just then Billy entered the chamber, "I've found her too, and she wants to meet you and David so she's coming this weekend."

…

 **Jason's secret is out and Tommy has a twin sister, who's coming to visit. Reviews make me happy.**


	14. Chapter 14: Runs in the Family

**A/N: Hint: Never get in the way of the cat.**

…

Chapter 14: Runs in the family

Rocky was the first one of the teens to arrive at the youth center on the morning that Star was supposed to arrive. He shrugged, he was early so he might as well grab something to eat. As he headed over to the counter someone crashed into him, "Watch where you're going," she snapped.

"I'm sorry," Rocky offered, before freezing, he never saw this girl before in his life, "Hi, I'm Rocky, I don't think we've met before."

The girl wrinkled her nose at him, "Star Turner, I'm not from around here, thank goodness for that."

Rocky frowned, "I'm sure you'd love Angel Grove once you get to know it better."

Star snorted, "The only reason I'm here is because my twin brother wants me to meet his crippled fiancée, which doesn't make sense, seeing as he could have any girl in the world."

Rocky pressed his lips together, if this was Tommy's twin sister, he hoped she didn't stay long or come out to visit often.

Soon Tommy and the others arrived, Rocky quickly saddled up to Tommy, "Hey Tommy want to spar," he asked, Tommy was always open for a spar first thing in the morning.

"Not right now, I want to talk to my sister first," Tommy insisted.

Rocky shook his head, he didn't want to stay around with Star, it honestly hadn't been hard to figure out who Star was, and he didn't like it.

He watched his team crowd around Star, who acted nice and polite to everyone, he frowned why was she acting so much different than she did with him. He should tell Tommy about his earlier encounter with his twin sister.

"Man, what's wrong?" Bulk asked.

"Looks like you're getting replaced by a girl," Skull added with his obnoxious laugh.

"I just don't trust Star, we meet earlier and it wasn't pleasant."

"Star's Tommy's twin sister, right," Bulk asked, trying to get his facts straight, it seemed like Tommy suddenly had a lot of siblings.

"Yeah," Rocky stated, nudging past them, he knew how this was going to work. Star was going to convince everyone that she was little miss perfect and no one would realize that it was just an act.

…

Across town in an abandoned building a girl that looked like a female version of Tommy, though slightly shorter and slimmer, broke the enchanted rope that was keeping her prisoner neatly in half, she rolled her eyes, the enchanted rope was easy to deal with, as long as you know what to do.

She tried to leave only to discover that she couldn't due to a forcefield, instead of frowning though she grinned like a kid who was just handed an ice cream cone. She wasn't afraid, she had already alerted her team and they were on the way. Whoever captured her wasn't smart, or didn't know who they were dealing with, forcefields and the enchanted rope were about as effective against her team as ice on the sun, totally pointless.

Outside the forcefield, she watched as a boy about two years younger than her placed some sort of pin in the four corners of the door frame. The older girl took a couple of steps back when the last pin was in place, she should be perfectly safe, but then again she might not be, she could never tell with this boy.

As soon as he sent the signal the forcefield disintegrated around the door, allowing the prisoner to escape with ease. She shook her head, "Thanks, Graph, that little gadget of yours worked like a charm."

The sixteen-year-old boy snorted, "My gadgets always work. They just don't always work in the way I want them to."

The girl rolled her eyes, "Thanks for the save, but we have to hurry, Camp is waiting for us. I don't know what captured me, but they were after my brothers, and I don't want anything to happen to them."

The boy nodded, "You don't think The Eraser is behind it do you?"

The girl shook her head, "No, Graph, I don't think your father is behind this, but it is a possibility. If he is, we best hurry."

…back at the youth center…

Rocky watched as everyone fawned over Star, what was the big deal about her anyway. He didn't understand why she could be so nice to the others but nasty to him. He shook his head as his communicator went off. Maybe he could explain what had happened to Tommy away from Star.

Star frowned when she heard the communicator go off, "What was that," she demanded.

"I have to go somewhere real quick," Tommy stated, "while I'm gone maybe Kim can show you around Angel Grove."

Star laughed, "That sounds delightful."

Rocky rolled his eyes. He couldn't wait for them to figure out that Star wasn't all that she seems.

…

Kim, Zack, Trini, and Aisha were showing Star around the park when they first thought something was wrong with Star.

A man around their age came running down a hill after them, "Star!" he called out, "There you are. I was worried sick when you sent out your distress call." The teen slid to a stop in front of them, "Where are your glasses?"

"I'm wearing contacts," Star stated simply.

He shook his head, "What are you doing here?" Kim noticed that he was starting to loosen up. He was getting ready to pounce but he was being careful as to not alert Star he was going to attack.

 _Tommy, someone just showed up, it looks like he wants to fight Star._

 _Star can take care of herself, besides you and the others are there. We will be there as soon as we are done here. At the moment we are fighting King Mondo._

Kim was about to comment back to Tommy, to tell him to be careful, when Star answered, "Can't you see, I'm hanging out with the Crippled Crane."

 _Star knows are identities; She knows I'm the Crane!_

 _We're wrapping up this battle as fast as we can, check to see if she's an enemy or not. she might just be like Sam and know things._

"I see," the man said, before asking, "How are you wearing contacts, last I checked, you were allergic to them."

Star laughed, "What do you know about me?"

"Enough to know that you are not my wife," the man stated calmly, dropping into a fighting stance.

Star stared at him in shock, before laughing, "You're right, I'm not her," and with that, she turned into Scorpina.

 _Tommy, it's Scorpina, Star was Scorpina all along._

Just then there was a beam of light and the power rangers were there, "Zack get everyone to safety, and if anything happens to Kim!"

Zack nodded his head, "Combined wrath of the red and gold zeo ranger on my head, got it."

The next thing that happened was quite odd indeed, Scorpina, not paying attention to where she was stepping, not that she cared, stepped on a calico cat's tail. It was a costly mistake.

The cat lets out a hiss, and the man who claimed to be the real Star Turner's husband started to shout, "Fall back, Fall back!"

"Why do we need to retreat," Tommy shouted, "We're the power rangers."

"You don't need to retreat you need to advance in a different direction," The man shouted.

The power rangers stared at him until they realized that the cat that Scorpina had stepped on had suddenly become the size of a mountain lion, and was letting Scorpina know that it did not like getting stepped on.

Tommy turned to the man, "How did you know that the cat could do that?"

"Forget that," Zack insisted, "What type of cat was that."

The man shrugged, "Patches is a dangel, a creature of the twelfth realm, they're size changers."

Trini frowned, "I didn't understand a word you just said."

Jason, however, decided to ask a very important question, "Who are you? How do you know about that," he gestured to the cat that had shrunk back to normal size now that Scorpina had fled.

"Name's Camp, Patches is a good friend of my fiancée's, they grew up together."

Just then the girl that had been held a prisoner in the old abandon building appeared, along with the boy who had rescued her, "Camp, Patches, there you two are!" the girl shouted, before blinking, "Who was Patches fighting?"

Tommy blinked, how did she know that the cat had been fighting, there were no signs anywhere of the fight. He shook his head, maybe she saw something he didn't. the girl tapped her glasses as if that would help explain everything.

"I'm the real Star Turner, sorry I'm late, that Scorpion Lady tied me up, but I'm here now. I'm glad I'm not the only one continuing our family tradition Tommy."

Tommy took a step backward, "I don't know what you are talking about, I'm Zeo Ranger five: red."

Star burst out laughing as if what he said was hilarious, "Good one Tommy, but you couldn't fool Grandfather, and you can't-fool me."

Camp laughed, "She's right you know."

Tommy's heart was pumping like crazy, how did this girl, his sister, know about his secret identity.

"I'm telepathic," Star explained, "It runs in the family."

Tommy nodded slowly, "What did you mean by continuing the family tradition?"

Star rolled her eyes, "Saving the World, our family has been doing it for generations now." She looked at all of the confused faces around her, "I'm called the StoryKeeper, I use my pen of power to ensure this world a happily ever after."

"I've heard of you!" Trini exclaimed, "You were on the news in Switzerland about as much as the power rangers were."

Star nodded, "Yes, and this is my cousin Graph," she nodded to the boy who had rescued her, "

'Though you might know him by his other name, Technoboy," she nodded to Camp, "And my Fiancé, Landslide."

…

David had joined them at the youth center, though he seemed a little upset, "Both my younger siblings are engaged and save the world and I still can't get a girlfriend."

Star shrugged, "I'm Sorry, try believing in yourself, that would work wonders."

Just then a man dressed as a police officer arrived, "Star, there you are, your Grandfather sent me to find you."

Star rolled her eyes, "It must not be important, if he didn't contact me directly," then she paused for a moment, "You could have told me that before I left, Officer Scott."

Tommy frowned, he found it so weird that his sisters could read minds and often comment on them out loud, "What should he have told you before you left."

Just then Jason arrived, he did a double take when he saw the police officer, "Uncle Lee, what are you doing here?" he asked.

Star jumped up and pointed at the two Scotts, "That, that's what I'm talking about."

Officer Lee Scott smiled, "Jason's father is my younger half-brother," he explained.

"And our Mother is his Stepsister!" Star exclaimed, "Meaning…"

"Meaning it's a good thing I'm not really a Scott or I'll be engaged to my cousin." Kim interrupted, she seemed amused, to think if they had known, they might have been raised as cousins.

Jason quickly turned around, "I need to talk to my parents about this," he stated before storming out the door.

…

 **A/N: Another bombshell, Jason, and Tommy are cousins. I wonder how that will affect their relationship and their relationships with Kim.**


	15. Chapter 15: The Beach Club Escapade

**Hint: When in doubt, send in Zack.**

Chapter Fifteen: The Beach Club Escapade

Kat and Billy sat down the boxes of supplies next to Ernie, who asked, "What do you think about my new beach club?"

"I think it's going to be the hottest summer hang-out in town," Kat stated.

"Zack's already talking about using it for a beach party."Billy added with a grin, "Everyone's excited about it."

Kat glanced at her communicator/watch, "I hate to leave but I have a ballet class I'm supposed to teach. We're putting on a ballet on King Midas."

Billy gave her a sympathetic look, "Good luck, Jason, and Adam are in that class."

Kat rolled her eyes, "It's a good thing Tanya and Trini could talk them into helping out, we were short. Though it will make practice harder, they don't know anything about ballet."

"That reminds me," Ernie stated, "How is Jason handling being Tommy's cousin."

Billy smiled, "He was shocked of course, but once he sat down with Kim and Tommy they realized it didn't really matter that the two of them were cousins. They're still best friends and Kim and Tommy are still planning their wedding, so no harm was done."

Ernie nodded, "That's good."

Just then a bikers gang came riding into the beach club area, tearing up the sign and knocking things over.

"You're trespassing man," one said, he was obviously the leader.

Billy looked at Kat in confusion, "What are you talking about? This is a public beach; anybody can come here."

Kat nodded her head, slipping her hand into Billy's, "Yeah."

"Yeah, but it's our turf, we were here first," the leader insisted.

Just then Zack showed up, "What's going on," he asked.

"You have twenty-four hours to clear out of here," the leader instructed, "Then we're coming back and it ain't going to be pretty." With that, he was gone.

Zack watched them go, "You know that girl on the back of his bike was kind of pretty."

…

Jason and Adam felt awkward as they looked around at all the girls in the ballet class that they were joining. How had they allowed Trini and Tanya to talk them into this again?

Just then Kat came hurrying in, "Sorry I'm late, we run into a little snag at the beach club, but I'm here now."

As practice came to a close Tanya and Aisha pulled her to the side, "Bad news," Aisha said, "We can't borrow props from the drama department."

Kat groaned, "We still have to make the costumes and build the set. There is no way we can find all the props as well."

Just then Bulk and Skull appeared, "We can help for a fee."

…

Zack followed Ernie into the Youth Center, "Come on, Man, you can't just give up!"

Ernie shook his head, "You heard what they said Zack, they'll be back."

"It's a public beach," Zack snapped, grabbing Ernie's shoulders, "We have every right to be there, and I was planning a slamming party."

"Look, I don't want anybody to get hurt, I'm sorry," Ernie looked into Zack's eyes, "The beach club is close."

…

Bulk and Skull weren't having any luck finding any props for the ballet. They just couldn't find anything gold. That was until Skull found a golden hound dog with ruby eyes, "Hey, Bulky." He called out, picking it up, "this doggy is made out of gold, maybe if I just polish it up a little bit."

With that, he started to rub it with his shirt sleeve, at least until a red light zapped out of its ruby eyes and turned an old egg beater into solid gold, "Bulky, this dog just turned it into solid gold."

Bulk snatched the dog out of his friend's hand, "let me see that." He rubbed the top of the dog and turned a lamp into gold, he squealed with delight, they shouldn't have any problems finding more props with this. The money was as good as theirs.

After buying the stuff they stopped by a hot dog stand and bought themselves some lunch, using the dog to get money to pay for it. However, as they sat down to eat the dog statue lit up and turned Bulk's hotdog into gold.

They both looked at the dog as it started to turn everything in sight to gold, Bulk grabbed Skull, "Let's get out of here before it turns us into gold."

…

Bulk and Skull rushed into the Youth Center where Kat and Adam were talking, "Little golden toy dog turning everything to gold in the park," Bulk and Skull jabbered.

Kat looked at Adam, "Should we wait for the others?"

Adam shook his head, "Let's check it out and determine if it really is as bad as they say. For all we know, those two could just be calling wolf."

As they left Tommy froze from his spar with Jason, "Where did Adam and Kat go?" he asked.

Zack, however, wasn't listening, he had just spotted a girl that had caught his attention earlier on the beach ordering a drink from Ernie.

He quickly excused himself from the group and headed over, "Hi, I'm Zack, I believe we met at the beach."

"Sorry, you got the wrong girl." The girl stated.

Zack laughed, "Don't be ridiculous, you were on the back of that bike, I never forget a pretty face."

"I have to go," she insisted, standing up to leave.

Zack stopped her, "Look a very good friend of mine is planning on closing down his Beach Club because of your friends and that's shutting down my beach party I had planned out."

"What do you expect me to do about it, Eddie has a mind of his own okay? And if he ever found me in here talking to you."

"Then let's go somewhere else to talk," Zack interrupted.

…

Kat and Adam looked around the park, "There," Kat exclaimed, pointing to one of the tables, "a little golden dog, just like they said."

Adam nodded, "We better take it back to Zordon to analyze it."

He took a step towards the golden figuring only to be thrown back by Cogs who were more than happy to fight them. He hoped Tommy and the others could get there fast, he was running out of options.

Just as the cog was about to deliver a blow that they just couldn't block, Tommy arrived, blocking the blow, "Are you alright?" he asked.

Adam and Kat both nodded their heads yes as a gigantified Midas Hound started to shoot at them. Both Tommy and Jason were hit.

The others looked at each other and then looked at the two golden statues that had once been two of their best fighters. Tanya took a step back, "I am not telling Kim about this."

The remaining rangers looked at each other, who was going to tell Kim about this little development. Rocky, of course, had the solution, "Nose goes," he shouted placing a finger on his helmet.

They were so busy arguing they didn't notice the Midas Hound slip away or that the golden statue of Tommy had been enveloped in a white glow. Suddenly the statue shattered and Tommy stood there in his White Power Couple Suit.

He walked over to where Adam was trying to tell Rocky that as the second in command he should be the one to tell Kim the news.

Tommy placed a hand on Rocky's shoulder, "Don't worry, Kim already knows, I keep her up to speed on these type of developments."

Rocky turned around and stared in shock at Tommy, "But how? You were turned to gold."

Tommy shrugged, "Kim and I don't need to use a morphin' call to morph into the Power Couple. We just have to think about morphin'."

Kat smiled, "Maybe you can use your powers to turn Jason back to normal."

Tommy nodded his head, "Let's head back to the Command Center and figure this out."

…At the beach with Zack and Emily…

"Look," Emily was saying, "When I first moved to Angel Grove no one gave me the time of day. I was the new girl. Eddie and his friends were the only ones who would talk to me you know."

Zack snorted, "That must have been before Kim moved back. She always made sure to welcome the new kids. And she doesn't take no for an answer, just ask Tommy. He tried to turn her away when they first met, and now they're engaged." Of course, he didn't mention the fact that the reason Tommy wanted nothing to do with Kim was the fact he was under an evil spell at the time.

"That girl in the wheelchair?" Emily asked.

Zack smiled, "That's the one, whenever you need a friend she's the one to go to."

Emily nodded then sighed, "I know Eddie isn't being fair, but I don't want to ruin our friendship. He's the only friend I have."

Zack nodded, "Sometimes doing the right thing is hard, but if he truly is your friend, he won't let it affect your relationship," He paused for a moment, "Great, now I'm sounding like Kim."

Emily giggled, "You know maybe the two of us should get to know each other better, I think I'll like getting to know you and your friends."

Zack opened his mouth to agree, or maybe even ask her out on a date, you could never know with him, but he never got a chance for at that moment, Louie Kaboom showed up.

"What's this?" He asked, "A former ranger by himself on a date while the current team are trying to free their friends from their statues and stop the Midas Hound. What a golden opportunity."

Emily looked at Zack in bewilderment, "What does he mean, former Ranger?"

Zack shook his head, "I have no idea, but for your safety, I suggest you run."

Emily gave him a look, "What about you?"

"I'll lead him away, don't worry, I'm use to monster attacks, I grew up here."

…The Command Center…

Tommy and Kim had their eyes closed as they focused all of their energy and thoughts on the golden statue that once was Jason, a pink and white mist was covering him now. In the background the alarm was going off, alerting them that Louie Kaboom was attaking Zack and Emily at the beach.

Rocky shook his head as he turned over to Tommy and Kim, "How much longer? Zack doesn't have powers. He could get creamed."

"Patience Rocky," Zordon spoke up, "Tommy and Kim need to concentrate on freeing Jason."

"It's working!" Trini exclaimed as Jason started to move slowly as the gold melted away.

"Hurry, Zack needs us now!" Adam shouted.

…Later that day at the beach club…

Zack was following Ernie around where the beach club begging him to open it up again, "Come on Ernie, Emily said she'll try talking Eddie down and if that doesn't work I'm sure I can talk the others into talking to them."

"Zack, I'm sorry but I don't want any trouble."

Just then the biker group rode in, Eddie got off his bike, "Neither do we, Emily told us how you saved her from that monster and I figure that there's room for both of us on the beach. If you want we can help set up so you can still open today."

Ernie smile quickly turned into a frown, "I'ld love too guys but the girl I hired took another job, I don't know where I can get someone last minute like this."

Zack pulled Emily off Eddie's bike, "Why not ask Emily, she's a great person."

Emily nodded, "I'll be happy too, it certainly looks like a great way to make friends."

Zack nodded his head, "Speaking of friends, my friends are putting on a ballet on King Midas," he rubbed the back of his neck, "I was wondering if you wanted to come with me, maybe go out for dinner afterwards."

Emily froze, "Are you asking me out?" she asked.

"That depends," Zack stated, "Is it a yes or a no?"

The biker gang burst out laughing at Zack's question, but Emily shook her head at them, "It sounds like fun, maybe later we can go riding."

Zack nodded his head as the two of them left the beach, "Tommy told me of a bike trail that leads to a mountain lake, he use to take Kim up there for picnics."

Emily smiled, "Sounds fun."

…

 **A/N: I'm sorry for the delay this chapter took forever to write, but it's done now.**


	16. Chapter 16: The Missing Power Couple

**Hint: Don't blink, you might miss something.**

 **Episodes: Joke's on Blue and Where in the World is Zeo Ranger Five?**

Crippled Crane 16: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Power Couple

Rocky thanked Emily as she handed him his order of fries, only to groan as the lid of the ketchup fell off, drowning his poor fries, "Come on, we have got to figure out who this prankster is, this is the third time this week this has happened."

Aisha, who had the day off from work for once laughed, "Come on Rocko, where's your sense of humor?" she asked as she grabbed the mustard for her hamburger only to get sprayed herself.

The rest of their friends laughed slightly, talk about karma, "I don't believe this," Aisha complained.

Rocky placed an arm around her shoulders, "Come on Aisha, where's your sense of humor."

A look at Zack revealed that he was having a hard time keeping his laughter in, but he knew better than to anger a yellow ranger.

"I like practical jokes as much as the next person but come on this is dry clean only!"

Just then a sixteen-year-old boy, that looked slightly familiar walked up to the table, "I couldn't help but see what happened and I think I can help." He pulled out a small handheld device, "You should have seen Star's school uniform after an impromptu game of Catch Me If You Can." He shook his head, s "She could get grass stains in the oddest places."

Jason frowned, trying to remember all of his cousin's team of heroes names, "You're Graph, Right?" he asked uncertainly.

Graph nodded his head, "that's right," he punched in a series of commands and waved it over Aisha's outfit, when he stopped it was like nothing happened.  
"Thanks," she said.

"What are you doing here Graph?" Adam asked, "Tommy isn't here, he went to the reservation with Kim for the weekend."

"That's why I'm here!" Graph exclaimed, "Star claims that she was just hiking with David and Tommy when she blinked and Tommy was gone!"

"She blinked?" Jason asked.

"Yes, and according to Mr. Trueheart, Kim had some sort of seizure around the same time Tommy disappeared."

Jason stood up, "Something must have happened to Tommy. Zack, Aisha, Trini, check on Kim and try to pinpoint Tommy's signal."

…

Kim didn't really remember what had happened, David, Star, and Tommy had gone out for a short hike while she visited with Mr. Trueheart in the truck. Suddenly a loud scream filtered through her head as agonizing pain threatened to tear her apart. After that everything had gone dark until she had woken up in the hospital with Trini and Zack sitting next to her.

"The others are looking for Tommy, can you reach him at all?" Trini asked.

Kim closed her head for a moment as she focused her energy on checking on Tommy, all she got was a wave of pain through the link. She cried out as it hit her, "No, every time I try locating him I get a pounding headache. I'll send Baka out to search. Maybe she can locate Sahen."

Trini nodded, "Star's trying to locate him Telepathically as well, but she's having no luck."

Kim sunk back into her bed, _Tommy where are you, I need you._ She cried out silently, there was no response.

...

The next day at school the rangers all met at the study hall before class, "Star still hasn't been able to locate Tommy, and every time Kim tries she gets a massive headache," Jason told the others, with Tommy missing Jason had slipped into his old role as team leader, "She's out of the Hospital, they claimed it was heat exhaustion, but Mom wanted to keep her home today anyway."

Rocky nodded, "The Olivers reported him missing, they're saying he went hiking with his brother and sister and no one's seen him since. We sent out the animals, but not even Baka can sense him."

Trini looked at Jason, "How is Kim holding up?"

Jason shook his head, "It's taking an emotional toll on her. She kept having nightmares last night that something bad was going to happen."

Aisha cleared her throat, "You don't think that this has anything to do with them being the Power Couple, do you?"

Adam shook his head, "Apparently Prince Sprocket has an older brother that takes after their dad, Zordon believes that he is responsible."

…

Meanwhile on the Moon Prince Gasket watched as Tommy thrashed around as his memories slowly faded away, this was a delicate process, lose too much memory and he'll forget how to fight, but leave to much memory and he'll remember something and throw off the brainwash.

…The Command Center…

Billy was trying to the best of his abilities to track Tommy's position, with Consalvo coordinating search efforts with Kim, who was searching from the comfort of her bed.

"Anything?" Adam's voice caused Billy to jump before shaking his head no.

"Nothing, we have all of our sensors scanning for him, all of our spirit animals are out searching for him, and both Star and Kim are trying to locate him with their telepathic links. It's like he disappeared from this dimension."

A loud thud and string of swear words caused everyone to turn and stare at Jason who was standing next to a large dent in the wall that hadn't been there a second ago. Jason growled, "It's the Green Candle Incident all over again, Tommy's in danger, we don't know where he's at and time is running out."

All of the original rangers fell silent, they had all been trying to block the memory of that time they couldn't reach Tommy in time to save his powers. However, they were interrupted by an alarm going off.

"The sensors picked something up!" Billy shouted, "Some of Tommy's brainwaves, but they are being altered as we speak."

"What does that mean?" Kat demanded, almost afraid to know the answer.

"He's being brainwashed." Graph spoke up, shaking his head.

"You can undo it, can't you Graph," Aisha asked, hope in her voice.

Graph, however, shook his head, "Sorry guys but I can't, the mind is too delicate, no one who follows the Code of Powers messes with the mind, one miss step and the person is gone forever. It's too risky, and I wouldn't know how to even work around it."

"There has to be a way to get Tommy back," Jason snapped, frustration in his voice, "Are you sure that there is nothing you can do?"

Graph nodded, "I'm telling you using a gadget on the mind is too dangerous!"

Zordon, however, spoke up at that point, "Kimberly is our best hope, the connection they have as the Power Couple shouldn't be affected by him being brainwashed."

Jason nodded his head, "I better go check on Kim, tell her that we are zeroing in on Tommy and what's going on.

…

Kim and Jake were the only ones home when the front door exploded. Kim sat up straighter in her chair as cogs and Prince Sprocket entered the room, "Jake go hide in a closet," she ordered the younger boy.

Jake, however, shook his head, "What about you? You can't fight them off while in a wheelchair."

Kim nodded her head, her mind racing a hundred miles per hour, he was right she would have to morph, which means one more person would be in on her secret identity, "Who said anything about me being in a wheelchair?" with that she quickly morphed and sent a couple of cogs flying.

"You're a Power Ranger!" Jake called out in shock.

"Go hide, Jake!" Kim ordered, "I don't know how long I can hold this many off."

…

The moment Jason came to the front door he knew something was wrong, "Zordon send the others to my house, something isn't right."

No sooner did he step through the threshold did he see what was wrong, the living room was a wreck, there were even a few cogs laying destroyed on the carpet. The thing that caused his heart to skip a beat was the tipped over wheelchair in the corner, "Kim!" he called out, maybe she was somewhere nearby hiding.

Jake crawled out from behind the couch, "They took her, the little robot said that he was going to make sure that the Power Couple didn't ruin his big brother's plan to destroy the power rangers."

Jason pinched the tip of his nose, when was this nightmare going to end. Now their best chance of getting Tommy back was gone.

…

Kim was still morphed and was struggling against the bounds that bond her to the chair. She hated this, this wasn't a dream, she wouldn't wake up to Jason telling her everything was going to be okay.

She was scared out of her mind and all she wanted was Tommy. Just then a thought occurred to her, morphing strengthens abilities, maybe she could reach Tommy now. She closed her eyes and sent a tidal wave of emotions down the link to Tommy, hoping just hoping that he would respond.

Upon a landing above her Rita Repulsa started mocking her, Kim tuned her out, turning her whole focus on the ring she could feel on her left hand beneath the glove. That was Tommy, that was who she was looking for. She needed to find him. Tommy loved her no matter what. He fought for her. She loved him so much. She needed to find him.

Up above Kim Prince Sprocket was saying, "Recreating her dream to destroy her was the best idea ever," as he changed the hologram projector to turn into Coach Schmidt. Down below the Power Couple Pink struggled with her bounds.

…

 **A/N: Cliffy haha… Do you think they can rescue Kim and Tommy? Please review.**


	17. Chapter 17: The Love That Binds Us All

**Hint: Show them the Ring!**

Previously on The Crippled Crane:

 _Kim was still morphed and was struggling against the bounds that bond her to the chair. She hated this, this wasn't a dream, she wouldn't wake up to Jason telling her everything was going to be okay._

 _She was scared out of her mind and all she wanted was Tommy. Just then a thought occurred to her, morphing strengthens abilities, maybe she could reach Tommy now. She closed her eyes and sent a tidal wave of emotions down the link to Tommy, hoping just hoping that he would respond._

 _Upon a landing above her Rita Repulsa started mocking her, Kim tuned her out, turning her whole focus on the ring she could feel on her left hand beneath the glove. That was Tommy, that was who she was looking for. She needed to find him. Tommy loved her no matter what. He fought for her. She loved him so much. She needed to find him._

 _Up above Kim Prince Sprocket was saying, "Recreating her dream to destroy her was the best idea ever," as he changed the hologram projector to turn into Coach Schmidt. Down below the Power Couple Pink struggled with her bounds._

Chapter 17: The Love that Binds Us All:

Jason was pacing back in forth in the Youth Center, he had to find Tommy and Kim. He couldn't let the Green Candle Incident happen again, and Kim's health was starting to show some major improvements. If it wasn't for the fact that Zordon had ordered them all to rest he would still be out there looking for his sister and cousin.

"Jason come here Quick!" Trini called out from where she was standing near Bulk and Skull who was telling a story with much gusto.

Jason hurried over, "What's up Tri?"

"Bulk and Skull claim that they saw Zeo Ranger Five by the lake." Trini hissed.

Jason nodded, pulling Trini over to the corner, "We better investigate, I wish we had Kim with us, she's still our best hope of getting Tommy back."

Trini nodded her head, "You know Kim, she's probably still trying to reach Tommy now."

…On the Moon…

Tommy slowly came too and stumbled upright, "Where am I, Who am I? Who's Kim?"

Prince Gasket surge forward, "My liege, you've recovered, we were greatly afraid for your well being."

"Who am I?"

"You are the King of the Machine empire leading us in a fight against the evil power rangers." Prince Gasket explained.

"I see, and who is Kim, the name keeps repeating itself in my head, I feel as if she is important to me."

Gasket glanced at his wife, how in the world could he still remember Kim, "She was your wife, but sadly she was killed by the power rangers."

…At the Lake…

Jason and Trini looked around the lake, "I don't see anything." Trini stated.

Jason, however, shook his head, "Keep looking we might have missed something. I let him down once I'm not going to let it happen again."

Trini turned to her boyfriend, "You aren't still blaming yourself for the Green Candle incident are you?"

Jason shrugged her hand off his shoulder, "If I was just a little faster I could have prevented him from losing his powers."

Just then Zeo Ranger Five flickered into view several feet in front of them. Jason quickly morphed and headed towards him until Trini called out, "Jason! Stop it's a trap!" but it was too late and Jason was sucked through the portal.

Trini ran forward as hard as she could only to stop when Zordon told her not to go any closer. She dropped down to her knees and screamed. Was this how Kim felt everytime something bad happens to Tommy?

…The Power Chamber…

"Ay Yi Yi, we lost Jason," Alpha declared.

"I'll have Billy return from the Zord repair bay," Zordon stated as Trini teleported in.

"I tried to stop him but I was too late," she stated, "What are we going to do now? After Kim, Jason was our best chance of getting Tommy back."

"What next?" Zack demanded, "We just lost our three most powerful Power Rangers, what do we do now?"

"Don't worry Zackary, we will find a way to rescue them," Zordon stated.

…

Kim kept her eyes screwed shut, she had to get out of here soon, water was now up to her knees, _Tommy I need you, Baka, Sahen, where are you!_ She called out silently for the umpteenth time.

Then she felt it, a giant brick wall that she could hear Sahen calling out from behind it. She took a deep breath and shoved with all her might, _Hold on Sahen, I'm coming._

…The Moon…

Jason was fighting for his life and he knew it. Tommy hadn't recognized him at all, but there was hope. Tommy had accused him of killing Kim, which meant that the machine empire had been unable to erase his memory of Kim completely.

Jason let out a sigh of relief as he got the upper hand and defeated the monster, "Listen, Tommy, I didn't kill Kim, the Machine Empire has captured her. We are trying to find her!"

"He lies Sire," Prince Gasket informed Tommy.

"You are Evil and a liar, and I will revenge the death of my wife!"

With that Tommy charged only to stop when he suddenly started to glow pink. Jason watched in confusion as a pink crane erupted from Tommy's chest and landed next to Jason where it burst into flames.

Jason and Tommy both took involuntary steps backward as the flame died down to reveal Kim standing there morphed.

Kim looked around in confusion, "And that just happened. I don't know how I did that," she informed Jason.

Jason laughed, "Be glad you did, you just stopped Tommy from killing me, he thinks your dead and that he is the King of the Machine Empire."

Kim frowned, "Don't Worry, I'll kick them into another dimension."

Jason smiled, Kim must have really taken that analogy to heart to be able to use it in this situation, "Exactly, now go get my cousin back."

Kim stared at Tommy, she couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do. Slowly she took off her helmet, shaking out her caramel colored hair, "Handsome, remember me? It's Kim, your Beautiful Crane, I'm alive, Gasket lied to you, his brother Sprocket captured me and recreated my nightmare. Luckily I was able to use our bound to free myself."

Gasket was scared, it couldn't be, it wasn't possible, there was no way that pathetic excuse for a former ranger could be one of the Legendary Rangers. She was going to ruin everything, unless, "She betrayed you, Sire, she's now working for the enemy. You must stop her."

"With pleasure," Tommy said circling Kim who stood perfectly still.

"Tommy, Handsome, please I don't want to fight you," Kim pleaded.

"Forget about it, Pink Ranger, he's under my control now, everything you do is in vain, he can't be saved," Gasket called out.

Kim tripped over a rock and landed on her backside as Tommy jeered down at her. This was it, Tommy didn't love her anymore. She pulled herself up feeling something cold press down on her left ring finger as she did, her ring. Suddenly she remembered her conversation with Jason, _"This is Tommy, the guy who loves you no matter what. The one that wants to be with you no matter how bad the situation gets."_

 _Tommy fingered Kim's ring, "This is me, just show me the ring and remind me why I gave it to you in the first place."_

Kim smiled, she had a plan, "I know you are confused on who you are, I can answer any and all of your questions."

Tommy sneered at her, "Lies, you are trying to confuse me."

"Tommy, I can see into your mind, you are already confused, I am trying to help."

"Don't listen to her Sire, she's trying to cast a spell!" Gasket shouted.

Kim smirked underneath her helmet, Gasket knew she had a plan, too bad he was too late, "I know who you are Tommy, you are the person who loves me more than life itself. The one who will always be on my side no matter what."

Tommy looked confused, which caused Kim to smile, it was working. Now to step things up a notch, but could she do this on her own? "Jason, come here, just for a moment, I want to try something." She requested.

Jason saddled over to his younger sister, "What is it?" he asked.

"Keep me upright," that was all she said before she demorphed. Jason quickly grabbed her only to discover that it wasn't hard to keep her upright at all.

Kim took a tentative step forward, clinging onto Jason's arm for support, she smiled, her eyes filled with joy, she was walking again. She held up her ring, "This is you, Tommy, this is the person who I love very, very much." With that, she let go of Jason's arm and took two shaky steps towards Tommy.

As her knees gave out on her, Tommy demorphed and grabbed her, "Thanks, Beautiful."

"Let's save the kissing and I missed you for later you two," Jason stated.

"There's no way out," Gasket gloated, "you will never be able to get out."

"If we can't get out, how did I get in. Seriously, does anyone know how I got here?" Kim demanded.

Just then there was a loud crashing sound as the forcefield generator died, causing the forcefield to fail. Kim smirked up at Tommy before waving a hand at Gasket, "See ya, wouldn't want to be ya!" and then the three friends disappeared.

…

Jason, Trini, Star, Tommy, and Kim were all sitting around a table at Ernie's Beach Club.

As Emily brought their food out Tommy asked, "When do you think the others will arrive, I'm ready to play some volleyball?"

Kim laughed, "Maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to join you, as it is I can't walk without aid."

"Hey, the fact that you are out of the wheelchair is a big win on your part," Jason stated.

"Yeah, think about it, Kim," Trini added, "You get to walk down the aisle now."

Kim and Tommy laughed as Jason said, "I'd like to know how you managed to teleport into the arena despite them closing off the portal."

Kim shrugged, "They can't close off my link to Tommy, and I was able to pull myself through the link. You'll have to have Billy and Zordon explain it with Trini there to translate, I couldn't understand what they were saying." Kim fell silent as Bulk and Skull sat down next to them and began to tell them how they saved the power rangers by taking out the forcefield.

Star laughed as they began to accuse them of not believing them, "Hey, while you were busy saving the power rangers did you figure out who is behind all the practical jokes."

Bulk opened his mouth, only to close it again, "No not yet."

Star leaned back in her chair, "You know there is only one place in Angel Grove that you can buy stuff for practical jokes, Angel Grove Novelty Shop. I bet that the people who work there know someone who buys a lot of stuff from there. That person will probably be the culprit."

Bulk grinned, "Thanks, Star," he said as he grabbed Skull, "Come on let's catch us a joker."

As Star leaned back in her chair she grinned, "I figured that handing them the Jokester in exchange for the well being of my brother, future sister-in-law and cousin is a fair trade."

…

 **A/N: Kim's out of the wheelchair, yeah, but now the Machine Empire knows that Kim and Tommy are the Power Couple. Please review**


	18. Chapter 18: Love is in the air

**A/N: Over a hundred reviews, wow, you guys are amazing. You know that Right?**

The Crippled Crane: Chapter 18: Love is in the Air

Tommy and Kim were in the Oliver's living room pawing through some wedding catalogs that Kim had picked up at the Wedding Store the other day. With only two months to go before the wedding, she wanted to make sure that everything was ready, especially since they also had to get ready for graduation.

"I was thinking," Tommy was saying, "That we could ask Ernie if we can use the Beach Club for the wedding and then we could use the Youth Center for the Reception."

"Hmmhmm," Kim hummed, nestling closer to Tommy.

Tommy frowned, "Did you just heard what I said?"

Kim absentmindedly nodded her head, oblivious to what was actually being said.

Tommy, however, knew Kim well enough that he knew that her mind was elsewhere. "Okay Beautiful, what's wrong?"

Kim shook her head, absentmindedly swinging her one leg, "I sent my dad a letter telling him about the wedding. We haven't agreed on a time or place so I just told him the date."

Tommy nodded, "What happened?"

"He sent it back unopened," Kim replied, wiping at her eyes. Tommy smiled softly before leaning over and giving her a soft kiss.

"Don't worry about it," he whispered, pulling back, "What matters is that you reached out to him. Now it is up to him to make his move."

Kim snuggled into his chest, "Have I ever mentioned how much I loved you."

"Only as much as I love you," Tommy announced as he leaned in for another kiss.

Just then Tommy's communicator went off surprising Tommy so much that he fell off the couch and cut himself on the coffee table.

Kim rolled her eyes, "Every single time we find a moment alone, something happens." Tommy shrugged, handing Kim her crutches as he bandaged his cheek. She was right after all.

"I'll meet you at the Youth Center later, and maybe we can get a date in that isn't interrupted," Tommy said, stealing another kiss before teleporting out.

…

Tommy was fighting cogs when Kim's voice filtered through his mind, _What's wrong with Jason? He seems to be struggling._

Tommy glanced over to where Jason was fighting a number of Cogs, "Jason," He called out, "What's wrong."

Jason gasped out, "I don't know, I'm weakening!"

Fear came crashing down like a wave on top of Tommy, no they couldn't have found a way to drain Jason's powers. They couldn't have a repeat of the Green Candle Incident. They just couldn't. "Hang on," Tommy called out rushing over to Jason, he knew all too well how dangerous it was to be caught in a battle with weakening powers.

"Jason," He screamed as Cogs pushed him away from his future brother-in-law. He was failing. Jason had always been able to reach him before it was too late and he couldn't repay the favor. Some cousin he turned out to be.

Jason collapsed to the ground in front of Prince Gasket and his wife. Prince Gasket scuffed at him, "Your do-gooder days are over. Hand over your powers or be destroyed."

"Never, Prince Gasket," Jason snarled trying to get back up. Things weren't looking good for him at the moment.

Just then Sprocket showed up causing Gasket to turn to face him, "Can't you see I'm busy right now?"

"Calm down Big Brother, I just thought you want to know that Dad's looking for you."

The effect was instant, Prince Gasket forgot about the gold ranger that he had at his mercy and went over to find out what damage the little brat had done.

As those two started to argue, Jason pulled himself up, clutching his side. As he tried to stand up Tommy appeared, "I got you, buddy," he told him, throwing his arm around his neck. Kat quickly grabbed his other side when it became clear that Jason couldn't stand on his own.

…

As the light beam vanished and Jason found himself in the Power Chamber he collapsed, hard onto the floor, demorphing.

"Jason," Tommy called out, while mentally calling out to Kim, _Get Trini here quick, somethings wrong with Jason!_

Tommy and Rocky helped Jason stand back up, "You okay Jason?" Tommy asked.

Jason nodded, "Yeah, yeah, Just a little dizzy. I've been working out very hard lately." He rubbed his head, "and I… I'm fine." With that, he noticed that Tommy had a bandage on his cheek, "What happened to you."

Tommy touched his cheek, "Oh it's nothing, I just had a fight with a monster this morning, it's kind of a long story."

"You fell off the couch and hit the coffee table when your communicator went off," Kim's voice filtered from behind them.

Jason looked at Kim, "How do you know that? Where you there? Where you two making out again?"

Tommy and Kim shared a look, "Maybe," the two of them mumbled.

Jason shook his head, he'd have to tease them about it when he didn't feel so light headed, "As long as you're okay."

Tommy nodded, letting out a sigh of relief, you never could tell when Jason would act the part of a best friend or the part of big brother, "Yeah, I'm just worried about you."

"It is possible that Jason's physical exhaustion has caused his powers to be temporarily unstable. Alpha will have to run some tests to be certain."

Five minutes later, Zordon stated, "At this point and time, everything looks good. I suggest that you take it easy Jason, and we will keep an eye on your powers, just to be safe. I fear that your biological makeup is not designed to hold the gold power for long periods of time, but only time can tell for sure."

…

The teens were at the Youth Center when Kat suddenly stood up, "I have a Ballet class to teach."

Billy took a deep breath, it was now or never, "Hey what are you doing tonight?"

The rest of his friends gave each other looks, as Kat replied, "Not much, why what are you doing?"

You fool, Billy chided himself, you don't have any plans for the date, it has to be just right, "Nothing, you know, no big plans."

"Well okay then," Kat said, "I guess I'll see you later. Bye."

"See you later," Billy said, watching Kat leave, he blew it, he totally blew it and of course Adam and Zack, being true to their color, had to mention it.

"Smooth, will smooth," Zack stated as Adam slapped him on the back, With a "Great Move Casanova."

"You were trying to ask her out, weren't you Billy?" Kim asked, a teasing smile on her face as she shifted her weight slightly on her crutches.

"Yeah, but I want to make sure that it's the perfect first date you know."

"Oh, Billy, Kat won't care what you do together," Kim stated, "She likes you a lot."

Just then Ernie arrived and gave them all leis, "Aloha, I'm back from Hawaii and I'm going to hold a luau at the beach club."

Kim nudged Billy, "This is the perfect opportunity, you should ask Kat to go with you."

Billy closed his eyes for a second, "I don't know, what if she says no?"

Tommy laughed heartily, hadn't he been nervous about asking Kim out the first time, "I don't think that she'll turn you down."

…

Aisha was talking to Tanya and Trini at their normal table as Kat taught her class and Adam and Rocky sparred, "It seems like everyone has a date but me," she said.

Trini nodded her head, she was going with Jason, if he felt up to it, Kim was going with Tommy, Tanya with Adam, and if Kat said yes, she would be going with Billy. Even Zack was planning on asking Emily if she was available even though she would probably end up having to work.

Next thing Aisha knew Rocky was tapping her on the shoulder, "You going to the luau?" he asked her with a silly look on his face.

"Yes," Aisha said slowly, unsure of what he was getting at.

"Maybe we can…" Rocky stated, before blushing and falling silent again.

Kim, who was surprisingly quiet for someone who needed crutches to get around, laughed behind Rocky, "Are you trying to ask Aisha out Rocky?"

Rocky turned around, blushing again, "Maybe."

Aisha smiled, "I'd love to go to the luau with you."

…

Kim watched as Alpha scanned Jason, who was lying still on the table in the medical bay, "What's wrong with him?" she demanded.

It had started at the laua, everyone was having a great time, until the cogs showed up. Tommy and the rest of the Zeo Rangers tried to fight them off until a giant Gasket and Archerina showed up. Jason stayed to fight off the cogs while the rest used their zords to fight off Gasket.

Everything seemed fine until after they had all demorphed and Jason had immediately collasped unto the sand in front of Trini. They had teleported him back to the command center were they were now waiting for results.

"It is as I had feared, Jason's Biological Structure is unable to maintain the gold powers for much longer. I will contact Trey and see how his rejoining is coming along."

…

Kim and Tommy were once again sitting next to each other on Tommy's couch, this time finalizing the wedding invitations, which they were planning to mail out soon, so that those in Kim's family that had to travel could make arrangements. They had talked to Ernie, who was more than willing to let them use the beach club, he had even offered to cater, which they had gladly accepted.

Tommy smiled as he began double checking addresses, "Why did you keep looking at Jason and Trini while we were cleaning up the club? You were acting like you were expecting them to disappear."

"I picked something up that fell out of his pocket," Kim explained, "A small black box if you get my drift, it contained a ruby ring."

"Jason's going to pop the question?" Tommy asked with such a silly grin that even Zack would be embarassed.

"Yes, but he wants to wait for the perfect moment," Kim explained, "He doesn't need to worry about Trini acidentally reading his mind and finding out about it."

"I bet Tanya and Adam are next," Tommy stated.

"I don't know, Zack and Emily have been pretty steady recently, and saying that about Zack is saying something. All those girls at the Luau and the only one he pays attention to is Emily. I think he has it bad."

…

 **A/N: Whew, Jason's trying to pop the question to Trini. I have some sad news. I only have two more chapters of this, but I already have the outline worked out for the sequel. Please Review.**


	19. Chapter 19: A Golden Problem

The Crippled Crane 19: A Golden Problem

Mrs. Scott entered the house to the sound of laughter, which caused her to smile, her kids were home. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She had faced this before when Jason went to the peace conference. But this felt different, more permanent like.

She entered the kitchen to find Kim and Jason and their friends playing Monopoly. "I saw that Zack," Aisha exclaimed, grabbing a card from Zack, "You didn't pay for this so you should just give it back to the bank."

Zack gasped, "You had your head turned; how did you see that?"

Aisha smirked, "You forget, I have two sets of eyes, Nita caught you."

"Stupid Ninjetti and their spirit animals," Zack muttered to himself, causing the others to laugh.

Just then their communicators went off and Tommy jumped up, "And I was winning too," He complained before turning to Jason, "Stand by for backup," he ordered.

Jason opened his mouth to argue, but Tommy silenced him, "I know you want to help, but I also know that your power is fading and you are in no condition to fight. Think about this as payback for all the times you sent me back to base during a battle as the green ranger."

Jason groaned, he had a feeling that he would say that, "I understand, but call me if you need me, don't hesitate."

Tommy slapped him on the back, "I will don't worry, keep an eye on him, Beautiful, okay."

Kim nodded her head; she had figured she would have to make sure Jason didn't sneak out to help.

As soon as the current rangers left to deal with cogs in the park, the rest of the former Rangers left as well with Trini saying, "I'll see you after your class, Jason," as she left the room, unaware of the look Kim gave her older brother when she said that.

As soon as it was just the two of them, Jason slumped down, "I keep thinking about Tommy and his green powers. I knew that it was hard on him, but now that I'm going through the same thing. It makes me appreciate that he went through this twice."

Kim smiled softly, "I went through it too, when Kat stole my power coin, right before I left for Florida."

Jason laughed heartily, "The two of you have never ceased to amaze me, going through what you have and still coming out happy, especially you, Sis." With that he stood up, "I think I'll go for a jog, seeing as I'm not needed here."

Kim shook her head as she watched him head out the back door before looking up at Mrs. Scott, "He's struggling from power loss; I recognize the symptoms."

…

Tommy looked around the Youth Center and frowned, checking his watch again, this can't be right. There was no way Jason was late and he was on time. This always happened the other way around, Jason was on time and he was late. He checked his watch a third time, the class would start in five minutes and Jason still wasn't there.

"Where's Jason," one of their students asked, clearly puzzled, usually it was Tommy who they had to wait on or both.

"I don't know," Tommy replied, "I'll go call to find out."

With that he hurried over to the pay phones, he could have just contacted Kim, or use his communicator, but the student was watching him and would find it odd if he didn't go to the payphones. He dialed the Scott's number.

"Hi Tommy," Kim said cheerfully before dropping into a serious tone, "Jason went out for a jog while you guys dealt with that Cog attack, I've tried contacting him, but he's not answering. He's going through withdrawals; you remember what that was like. I'm sure he'll be there soon, but you might ask someone else to fill in, just incase, he needs time alone to figure out his feelings."

Tommy gave a shallow laugh, "I know what's that's like, I just hope he didn't run into trouble while he was out by himself. I know that Lord Zedd loved to give me trouble when I was alone with fading powers."

"I'll go to the Power Chamber and see if I can't get a pin on him, don't worry Tommy, Jason's strong, with or without powers."

Tommy hung up the phone, worry pricking at his heart; he knew how dangerous being a power ranger with failing powers was. He hoped that either Jason would arrive here soon or Kim would find him safe somewhere else and let him know.

He entered the Youth Center again, looking around for someone to help him with the karate class, just in case Jason just needed some time alone like Kim thought.

He smiled as he saw Adam, he would do, "Hey Adam, Jason is running late, can you fill in for him, at least until he shows up."

Adam arched an eyebrow and leaned over to him to whisper in his ear, "What's up, you seem stress?"

"Jason's having a rough time with the whole fading power thing, Kim thinks he just needs some time to himself."

"I can help with that," Adam stated, nodding his head, "Let me get my gi on and I'll be right there."

…

Tommy frowned as he dismissed the class, Jason still hadn't arrived and Kim still hadn't found him. He remembered one time, he was out on the mountainside, too weak to move, hoping that Zordon and his friends would find him before Lord Zedd's monster finished him off. He just hoped that Jason just needed some time alone to figure out his emotions.

Just then Trini showed up Tommy let out a sigh of relief as he told Adam, "There's Trini, maybe she's seen him."

Trini walked up to him and shattered that hope completely, "Have you guys seen Jason, we were going to go on a date after his class."

Tommy felt his heart skip a beat, Jason wouldn't stand Trini up, not when he was about to pop the biggest question of his life, "He isn't here yet, he needed some space." He told her, hoping that she would remember his green ranger powers, especially the period when he was barely holding on to his powers.

Trini seemed to understand as she nodded, "no problem, just tell Jason I'm waiting for him at our table when he does show up."

…

Jason was running for his life and he knew it. He was running from cogs while barely holding onto his morph. How had Tommy been able to fight like this? He could barely keep ahead of them. Then again, how much had he actually been relying on his power couple power? He had after all been with Kim at the time.

He braced himself up against a tree, "Don't these guys ever give up," He asked as he raised his communicator to his mouth, only to get static, the cogs were using some sort of jamming device, "Man, I wish my communicator worked," He was smart he knew he needed help. An image of Tommy's unconscious body filtered through his mind, if things didn't change for the better that would be him on the cot in the medical bay area.

His morph flickered on and off as he peered at the approaching cogs, "This was not what I had in mind for today's workout," he stated as he started to run again, gasping for air. Had Tommy felt this weak when he was losing his powers? If so, how had he manage to stay in the fight for so long? He suffered for over a month and here he was complaining and it had only been a couple of days.

As Jason run he heard a familiar voice shout, "Surprise," Lord Zedd, Rita and a bunch of bird-like creatures that Tommy had told him were called Tengas where in front of him. He was trapped, with a broken communicator and fading powers, between two of the power rangers worst enemies.

He dodged out of the way as the Machine Empire and Lord Zedd started to fight, this was the break he had been looking for. He could finally make it to the Youth Center, Extremely late, he was sure that Tommy, the King of Tardiness, would rib him about it.

…

Tommy had been assigned to stay at the Youth Center with Kim in case Jason showed up there as the rest of the power rangers spread out to find him, Tommy was getting worried enough that he was about ready to see if they couldn't find a way to get the police involve without telling them what was really going on.

He was probably the only one, besides Kim, who was watching him pace from her seat, she had a hard time walking still and so only did it if she absolutely had to, that understood how depressed a power ranger could get when their powers were failing. He would never admit it aloud and had sworn Kim to secrecy, but Kim probably saved his life a couple of times when he was the green ranger.

He let out a sigh of relief as Sahen picked up Jason heading towards the Youth Center. The relief didn't last long however when he immediately collapsed onto the floor. Tommy shot forward racing towards his best friend and cousin, it had been hard being the one going through it, but at the moment he realized it was harder to be the one watching then the one suffering. Behind him, Kim kept tripping over her crutches as she tried to reach her brother.

Ernie quickly started to push everyone back, "Stand back, give him some air," he looked down to were Tommy was holding Jason's head in his lap as Jason gasped for air, he looked a little green in the face, "I should call an ambulance," he said.

It was Jason, who had just come to, that disagreed with him, "No that's okay Ernie, I'm fine."

Emily, who was working that day, stated, "Ernie's right Jason."

Tommy, aware that Jason's refusal for help meant only one thing, this was a power ranger emergency and he needed to get him to Zordon quickly, "No that's okay, we'll take him," Tommy insisted as he helped Jason out of the Center.

…

Kim wasn't happy, she was one of the two most powerful power rangers in the universe and she was given the job of messenger. Honestly, Billy and Trini were helping triangulate where the Treys and Jason need to be to join the Treys together and return their power before it killed Jason. Even Zack and Aisha were at the Power Chamber standing by for back up.

Zordon had told her that she was too valuable to risk losing. She didn't quite understand it, Tommy was on the front line and without him, she was nothing more than a former ranger, and everyone knew that.

She entered the house with a sigh, she knew that Zordon and Tommy were just trying to protect her, but honestly, she was a grown woman with several years of experience.

As she entered the kitchen she was shocked to see Mama Scott pouring over a photo album with tears flowing down her cheeks, "Mama what's wrong?"

Mrs. Scott wiped at her eyes, "It's nothing, really, it's just, you and Jason are graduating from high school and getting married and the two of you don't need me anymore."

Kim sat down next to her with a sigh, she loved spending time in the power chamber but there was no place to sit, and staying on her feet for an extended period of time was hard for her, "Oh, Mama, we will always need you, it's not going to be much different than us going to the peace conference and Florida. In fact, it will be better because we won't be so far away and we can come visit."

Mrs. Scott smiled, "Is Jason okay, Ernie called earlier and told me that Jason passed out at the Youth Center."

Kim nodded, "Complication with power loss, luckily the Treys showed up and we're working on restoring their powers to them."

Just then Kim's communicator went off and Zack said, "Kim you have got to come to the Power Chamber, you will never believe what is happening."

Kim rose the Communicator to her mouth and said, "Trey helped the rest of the rangers grow so that they can fight a giant King Mondo and cogs."

Zack sounded deflated, "How did you know that?"

"Tommy doesn't need to tell me what he's doing to let me know what he's doing Zack."

…

Tommy walked up to were Jason was sitting alone, watching the sunset, "Hey watch up," he asked, crouching down next to him.

"Not much," Jason replied, staring up at the sky with a blank expression on his face.

Tommy sighed, "I know how you feel, it's tough giving up your powers."

Jason nodded his head, "It sure is, it makes me appreciate that you did this twice."

Tommy smiled, "What's the plan now?"

Jason shrugged, "I can tell you this, I'll have a lot more free time on my hands."

Tommy smiled, "I'm sure you'd put it to good use, just remember that no matter what happens man, we will always be friends."

"I know," Jason said, "We're cousins, nothings going to change that, except the fact that you're about to become my brother-in-law."

Tommy laughed, "Yeah, I guess so, huh."

Jason smiled as he noticed Trini walking down on the beach as he and Tommy stood up Tommy grinned, "So when are you going to make Trini my Sister-in-law?"

Jason laughed, "When I find the perfect time to pop the question." He replied before walking up and meeting Trini.

"Is Jason okay?" Kim's voice caused Tommy to turn around, and catch Kim as her legs gave out on her.

"He's fine," Tommy stated, "What are you doing without your crutches?"

"I wanted to see if I could walk to you without them," Kim explained, "I teleported here and was able to walk five steps before you had to catch me."

"I'm sorry you couldn't walk farther," Tommy whispered, sweeping Kim up, bridal style.

"I don't know," Kim replied, "I think I like being in your arms."

"The Machine Empire is gone but Rita and Zedd are still out there." Tommy said more to himself than to Kim.

Kim nodded her head, "It doesn't matter who we fight, if they threaten Earth we will stop them."

…

 **A/N: There you go, one more chapter to go, please review.**


	20. Chapter 20: The Crane Soars Again

**A/N: This is the last chapter of Crippled Crane, but don't you fear, I have at least two sequels planned for it. But as I close this book, I want to thank all of my wonderful readers for all the reviews, favorites and follows that this story received, you are totally amazing.**

 **Now without any further delay:**

Chapter Twenty: The Crane Soars Again.

Tommy, Rocky, and Adam were training for a martial arts competition, but could tell that Rocky was off the mark, "What's up man, I was wide open and you didn't take the shot?"

Zack, who was helping coach them shouted, "Yeah, out of the three of you, Tommy should be the most distracted, seeing as his wedding is less than a month away."

Rocky tried to kick at Zack only he missed and fell down hard. Zack shook his head, "You're trying too hard bro, loosen up. At the moment a lone putty could take you down."

…

While Zack trained Tommy, Rocky, and Adam, the girls, mainly Kat, Kim, Aisha, and Tanya were on a bus from the orphanage, leading the kids in a song of 'Row, row, row your boat.'

Kim watched as Kat walked the aisle checking on the kids as she song along, everyone was having a good time, except the twelve-year-old boy sitting next to her, "Justin, what's wrong, don't you know the words?"

Justin shrugged, I just don't feel like singing that's all."

Kim nodded her head, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Justin shook his head, "There's nothing to talk about."

Kim was about to say something when Tommy interrupted her thought with a quick, "Rocky's been hurt," then he put the wall up to prevent her from finding out more. For Kim that only meant one thing. There was something Tommy wasn't telling her.

She shook her head, it was harder for him to block his thoughts when they were in the same room and they were arriving at the gym to meet up with the boys.

Kim knew that Rocky was hurt more than Tommy let on when Aisha grabbed her and pulled her out of the line of children, "Sahen told me to wait with you until Tommy gives the all clear."

Kim wasn't impressed if it wasn't for the fact that she had to rely on her crutches to walk she would shoulder her way to the front of the crowd, "How badly is Rocky hurt? Do we need to warn the others and prevent the children from entering?"

Aisha shook her head, "He hurt his back."

That statement floored Kim, his back, she stumbled backward. She knew all too well how devastating a back injury could be. She had injured her back five months ago and still had no idea when she would be fully healed.

Tanya and Kat figured that something was wrong when they noticed Kim and Aisha fall back, they were the only two who could know what was going on inside the gym without people noticing that they were talking into their watches, so they prevented the kids from entering the building.

It was a good thing too, for that was when the paramedics arrived wheeling Rocky past on a gurney. Tanya grabbed Aisha, and pulled her forward, "Aisha, you should go with him," she said.

Aisha looked confused but told the paramedics, "I'm his girlfriend."

The paramedic nodded and allowed Aisha to climb into the back of the ambulance as well.

Kim didn't even realize that she was shaking until she found herself in the warm and strong embrace of her fiancé. "It's going to be okay Beautiful, they just want to make sure that he hasn't hurt anything."

…

Justin looked around before closing the door, nobody had noticed him leave the group at the orphanage and he had to check on Rocky, he had to be okay. He just had to.

He stared at Rocky who was asleep on one of those hospital beds, "Rocky," he whispered, wishing that he would wake up, but not want to wake him up.

Just then he heard voices approaching and he dove under the bed if they caught him, they probably would send him back to the orphanage.

Justin watched as Aisha, who had run downstairs to the gift shop to grab something and their friends, including Kim, easy to tell from the others due to her leg braces and crutches, enter the room.

"Hey," Aisha stated, "I got you a surprise," she said, setting down a vase of flowers, and walking over to her boyfriend and giving his hand a squeeze. Rocky laughed as Adam and Zack dramatically let a bunch of balloons go and Tommy showed him a giant get well card.

"The Doctor said that you will make a full recovery," Kim reported, it sounded as though she was trying to reassure herself more than Rocky.

"Yeah," Rocky said, "but not in time for the competition, it looks like you guys need to go without me."

"We don't have much of a choice," Zack stated, "Without that prize money the orphanage is toast."

Kat nodded her head, "Justin's taking this really hard. It's bad enough that he had to lose his mother, now he's going to lose the orphanage as well."

Their train of thought was interrupted as their communicators went off, Justin, still hiding under the bed, gasped as Tommy said, "This is Tommy, go ahead."

"Rangers," a deep voice stated, "A powerful wizard named Lerigot has arrived on Earth and may be in danger. Report to the Power Chamber."

Rocky smiled, "You guys heard Zordon, go, don't worry about me, Aisha and Zack can keep me company, and Billy's on his way."

Justin gasped as he watched his friends disappear in front of him, no way, his friends were the power rangers. As he lifted his head up, he hit it on the top of the bed, "Ow," he cried out as he crawled out from underneath the bed.

Zack, Aisha, and Rocky stared in horror as Justin stood up, how long had he been there?

"Justin?" Rocky asked as Zack demanded, "Did you just hear all of that?"

Justin couldn't think on how to say it so he blatantly demanded, "You guys are the power rangers?"

…

Kim looked around the jungle, "Jason and Trini picked a bad day to go scuba diving, he's going to feel bad when he learns about Rocky."

"I'm going to have to give him a hard time about it," Tommy replied Zordon had sent the two of them to Central Africa to find and rescue Lerigot.

Kim took off her helmet, at the moment the only way for her to get around freely is while morphed, but it was super hot and her suit wasn't that comfortable. "Let's get going," she said.

Tommy watched as the love of his life followed the tracking device that would lead them to Lerigot. Suddenly he heard her scream as she disappeared from sight. "Kim!"

"AHH!"

Tommy raced down the cliff and followed the river until he found Kim, unmorphed, trying to struggle out of the water, "Kim, Beautiful, are you okay?"

Kim stood up, "I think so, the river current threw me out of my morph though."

Tommy helped her out of the water, "Can you walk, or do you need to morph?"

"I think that I can, but I twisted my ankle," Kim replied.

Tommy groaned, "Let's take a look at your ankle, Kim, and then we better figure out where Lerigot is; Zordon says he's running out of time."

Just then a little man appeared out of the trees, Tommy let out a sigh of relief; he didn't need to be told that this was Lerigot, he just knew. "Lerigot?" He asked, "My name is Tommy and I am Zeo Ranger Five: Red as well as the White Legendary Couple Ranger, and this is Kimberly, my counterpart the Pink Legendary Couple Ranger."

Lerigot pointed a finger at Kim's ankle which was swelling up, "I twisted my ankle."

The wizard glowed and Kim watched as her leg started to tingle and she soon was standing up, holding on to Tommy for support, just in case. Tommy nodded his head, "Let's go and get you back to the Power Chamber."

…

Kim was standing next to the bed in the medical bay that Lerigot was laying on, "Is he okay."

Alpha nodded, "he's going to be just fine."

Just then Lerigot started to twitch as if he was having a seizure, Kat gasped, "Is he okay, what's happening?"

"The only time I saw something like that is when something happened to Kim or Tommy and they send a distress signal to the other," Tanya observed.

"Tanya is correct," Zordon stated, "It appears that he is receiving a message."

Alpha typed something at one of the computers and the viewing globe came to life, showing them a female humanoid figure who told them that she had Lerigot family and that they needed to hand over Lerigot, "I'll even release my prisoners, something tells me that they are very important to you."

Just then the scene changed and Kim cried out as she buried her face into Tommy's shoulder, who automatically tightened his grip on her, Divatox had Jason and Trini, "Patch us through!" Tommy ordered when the rest of his team looked at him with confusion he sighed, "I want Divatox to know what she really is dealing with. Somebody contact my sister, tell her that we are down three rangers and a dealing with a hostage situation."

Adam quickly left to make the necessary phone call as Alpha opened up communications, "Divatox," Tommy growled in a voice that he only ever truly used when he was under a spell, "Listen well and Listen Good," he gestured to Kim, who was now standing next to him, "We are the Power couple and the two rangers you have prisoner are our cousin and brother. We will do everything in our power to release them.

"We also have a large group of powerful allies, lead by my sister. We are willing to work with you but know this, we out power you. Double cross us and you will regret it."

With that, the line went dead and Tommy pulled up a stand that contained power morphers, "Billy and Trini built these, the powers are stronger and the Zords faster. We're going to need both to get Trini and Jason back."

Kim grabbed one of the morphers, the blue one, "You guys go, I'll get this morpher to Rocky or whoever he wants me to give it to."

Tommy nodded, "Be careful, beautiful, and be ready to teleport to me at a moments notice."

Kim laughed, slapping him playfully on the chest, "I'm always ready to teleport to you, Handsome, don't worry."

…

Rocky, Aisha, Billy, who had just arrived, and Zack were answering Justin's questions about Power Rangers when Kim came running into the room and tossed something at Billy, who caught it as Kim said, "They're waiting for you at the pier. Good luck, and don't be afraid to call in back up, not only am I and these two," at that, Kim nodded to Aisha and Zack, "Standing by, but so is Star and her team if we really need help."

Justin watched as Billy disappeared in a flash of light before demanding, "How are you able to walk? I thought you needed crutches to walk."

Kim laughed, "Not anymore, I have healing powers that allow me to heal myself. Unfortunately, I don't know how to use it on someone else, or else I could send Rocky to help instead of Billy."

Justin smiled, "Can I help? I want to be a power ranger."

Aisha and Zack both opened their mouths to argue with him, only for Kim to shush them, "I have a feeling that you will become a Ranger very soon, just not yet. Tommy and I are aware that the current team will most likely retire in the next four months as they get jobs and go to college."

Rocky nodded, if it wasn't for his back injury he would have stayed on till fall when he would leave to go to culinary school. It would make sense that the others had similar plans. They couldn't save the world forever.

As they talked they taught Justin how certain things worked at the power chamber until suddenly Kim jumped up with a growl and a flash of pink before simply vanishing with a loud bird cry.

Justin gasped, "What just happened?"

Aisha shook her head, "Kim has powers I don't fully understand and you just witnessed one of them. She'll explain it when she gets back."

…

For Tommy and the rest of the team the battle wasn't going good, Divatox had somehow turned Trini and Jason evil and it meant that Tommy was now being dangled over a fiery pit of lava by Jason. Just as he was certain that Jason was going to throw him in, there was a pink explosion and Kim pushed Jason away, sending a pink light to him and Trini.

As the pink light faded Jason shook his head and gasped, "What just happened?"

"purification spell," Kim replied shortly, as she skillfully picked the lock of the cage holding Lerigot and his family, "Bulk and Skull are nearby, we better check on them and make sure that they're okay."

Jason rubbed his forehead, of course, Bulk and Skull were nearby.

…

Jason smiled as he accepted the check for the Orphanage along with Tommy and Adam. Volunteering to take Rocky's place on the team was a small price for the damage and time he cost his friends.

As he held up the check he watched as Rocky came up to the ring and cheered and Trini, Tanya, and Kim ducked into the ring, he stared in amazement as Kim stole a kiss from Tommy. He hadn't seen her since they had returned home from the island and then it was while she was morphed.

"You're walking!" he exclaimed, causing everyone to laugh at him.

Kim smiled, throwing her arms wide, "Yep, I'm no longer the Crippled Crane."

…

 **A/N: To be continued in the next book The Struggling Falcon.**


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